Why do people copy...

Why do people (apparently) copy/paste a post into their replies? It's very superfluous and makes a thread hard to read. Now, I'm no expert so if someone else has a differing opinion please let me know what it is.

Thanks for not copy/pasting Post's into your Replies,
Rick

 

The context is very useful, especially to users on the newsgroup side.

--
R. Robert Bell


Why do people (apparently) copy/paste a post into their replies? It's very
superfluous and makes a thread hard to read. Now, I'm no expert so if
someone else has a differing opinion please let me know what it is.

Thanks for not copy/pasting Post's into your Replies,
Rick

 

Thank you all! I knew there was a reason!

 

As the others have said, for newsgroup users, its really the only
clue as to who has responded to whom. It might be different
for web users. As Robert said, without the context, the response
may mean an entirely different thing.

The general rule is to put the new text above the part of the
message being responded to. The only bad practice is
the failure to trim the old message part, thus leaving practically
the whole thread in a single message.

I often don't respond to messages that don't specifically quote
me back because I'm not sure who the response is intended for.

Regards,
Doug

 

http://www.html-faq.com/etiquette/?quoting

http://www.html-faq.com/etiquette/?toppost

 

I often don't respond to messages that don't specifically quote

Sounds like you need a real ng reader, Doug. Try out 40tude - its free and
defaults to a real thread approach.

-- Mike
___________________________
Mike Tuersley
CADalyst's CAD Clinic
Rand IMAGINiT Technologies
___________________________
the trick is to realize that there is no spoon...

 

Thanks for the suggestion Mike. I appreciate it.

Think I'll stick with OE for now. The only time it's
difficult to determine who sent an unquoted message
is after the thread grows and is deeply nested.

Then you have the folks that respond to one person while
quoting back on another post so I'm not sure it makes
a lot of difference.

Regards,
Doug

 

Why do people (apparently) copy/paste a post into their replies?


http://www.html-faq.com/etiquette/?quoting

http://www.html-faq.com/etiquette/?toppost

Is this correct?

 

Doug, Is this considered "Top Posting"?

message being responded to.

 

Yes.

And if you notice, unless items are to be addressed one by
one as in a Q & A, most posters who include quote backs, use top
post in Autodesk newsgroups. (A brief survey shows 80%)
so the link referenced would indicate that this is proper:

i.e. "and it is good manners in any social situation to go
along with what the majority are already doing when you arrive "

Unless it is Q&A style, I personally would rather see the
latest posted info at the top rather than having to scroll down
to read the message. I can however see R.K.s point if the
entire thread is to be sent back and forth so the entire thread
is contained in the last message. With bottom posting, it retains
its Q&A format.

If you do google searches however, you will note that individual
messages are truncated to a certain length and so if the quoteback
exceeds that length, you must choose to open the extended version
to get the last message.

 

I'm not Doug but yes that is considered top posting. For one who
reads 1000s of messages a day like myself, top posting is a
blessing since usually I don't have to mouse click down through a
message to see a new portion posted at the bottom. Multiply that
by a years worth of clicking and top posting helps out the old
hands!

Most users who are on newsgroup reader software like Outlook
Express or Netscape (snip) off manually a quoteback. The HTTP
interface of these groups will not allow you to do so.

 

Thanks Doug! That's great information.

Rick