Learn To Quote
I’m tired of laziness on mailing lists. Some of the ones that I’m on are good, but most of them are populated by inconsiderate people that don’t give a whit about bandwidth, mail usage, storage, or time.
Lazy bastards…
When I reply to a post, I only quote the relevant parts of the original post. Below the quoted material, I put my response. That way someone can read what I’m referencing, and then read what I have to say about the topic. It just makes sense.
All of these people using Outlook to top-post on mailing lists really piss me off. I have to scroll down to the original post, read the entire thing, then scroll up, read the next reply (which involves scrolling back down), scroll back up, and repeat until I get to the most recent part of the conversation. This breaks up the flow of the conversation, makes it difficult to read, and often leads to confusion. Most of the mailing lists that I’m on are technical in nature, so a lack of confusion is necessary to those people trying to find a solution to a problem.
Also, some mailing lists that I’m on put a footer at the bottom of every email. It’s usually a link to the archives, FAQ, rules, or other necessary information. I have two bitches about this. Everyone on the list sees this multiple times a day, but there are still people that refuse to at least read the links. They end up asking questions that are in the FAQ, or have already been asked/answered in the archives. The links are there for a reason, people! My second bitch is when people quote the footer in their reply. This means that I now have two copies of the footer in a single email: the one they quoted, and the one that was automatically added to the end of the list. Please be considerate enough to snip that out since you should obviously know that everyone on the list will see it again.
Also, if you join a mailing list, lurk for a while and learn the methods, etiquette, attitudes, and general environment of the list. For a really busy list this may only take a day or two. For a slow list, it may take up to a week. If you’re really in a tight spot, and must post a problem right away, please state so.
When posting a problem, please clearly post what you are experiencing (point A), what you expect to experience (point B), what you tried to do on your own to get from point A to point B, and then ask for help. Everyone on the list is very busy, and they don’t have time to travel to Narnia for a crystal ball that works to attempt to decipher your problem. When someone posts on a list, and they don’t include this information, I delete their email. I don’t have the time or patience to blindly troubleshoot a problem that is not adequately described.
Now to avoid the “You’re a hypocrite!” comments. I have top posted in replies in the past, and I still do it sometimes to this day. It’s usually small, personal mailing lists where someone asks, “What are we eating at the game tonight?” I’ll top post with a quick, “I’d prefer pizza.” reply. However, if the post is substantial, and some frame of reference is needed for the readers, I’ll always quote properly, and put my comments in the middle of the quoted material.
Ok. I’ll get off my high horse now. Sorry for the rant, but this has been eating at me for a long time now. I feel better now.
