Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 14:40:39 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Quoting
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 12:50 PM 4/21/05 -0400, Gayle Surrette wrote:
>Except I've been top posting for the last 35 years and when I started
>top posting was the standard and in many places my last 10 jobs it
>was required for internal email.  So I have to wonder where this
>netiquette issue developed.

Read the RFC?

For those who don't know how the internet works, "RFC" stands for "Request
For Comments".  It's the way internet standards are publicised.  The one
covering netiquete is RFC 1855.  It isn't a "standards track" RFC, so it
isn't required behavior, but it does provide a strong indication of what
the traditions on the net are, what is expected by most, and what will
avoid getting you talked about and to by the net.cops and other net users.
It is put out by the organization that handles internet standards (IETF).

>From the RFC:

-----
This document provides a minimum set of guidelines for Network Etiquette
(Netiquette) which organizations may take and adapt for their own use. As
such, it is deliberately written in a bulleted format to make adaptation
easier and to make any particular item easy (or easier) to find. It also
functions as a minimum set of guidelines for individuals, both users and
administrators. This memo is the product of the Responsible Use of the
Network (RUN) Working Group of the IETF.
-----

>From section 3.1.1:

-----
If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you summarize
the original at the top of the message, or include just enough text of the
original to give a context. This will make sure readers understand when
they start to read your response.
-----

The full version of the RFC is at:

http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html

Think of it as the Emily Post of internet etiquette.  You can ignore it if
you like, but you won't be invited to the fancier parties...

For internal mail at a given organization you should follow whatever the
guidelines are for that organization.  A lot of business mail is top posted
to save time and there's no harm done since they generally aren't involved
conversations with many participants.  They are requests and answers
between two people and usually don't go back and forth much.  On the
internet in usenet news and on mailing lists things are very
different...and so are the accepted practices.

If you want a truely impossible to read thread try one where some top-post,
some bottom-post, some post interleaved, and some post in HTML....I've
actually seen this happen and it was nearly impossible to read.

-- Mike B.
--
"Minimum effort, maximum efficiency" -- Kenshiro Abbe Sensei