vpFREE2 Forums

Context

#1

In a message dated 3/28/2003 3:02:35 PM Pacific Standard Time,
vpFREE@yahoogroups.com writes:

  Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 09:09:16 -0800
  From: "nudge51" <nudge51@lvcm.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Gold Coast &all Coasts

... If you aol'ers could learn how to highlight the
portion of text in the original post before you hit reply, then most of the
rest of us might have a clue as to what the hell you are talking about.

Nudge

Why did you limit it to just AOL members?

It's a common affliction.

It's just laziness. People can find the time to be on all the time to get
their email & post their earthshaking thoughts but they can't find the time
to edit their posts so that they're intelligible.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#2

How about putting the reply at the beginning instead of the end ? If I don't
see it on the 1st screen the mouse pointer is closer to the delete than the
scroll down.
Gary

···

----- Original Message -----
From: <TedChee@aol.com>
To: <vpFREE@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 8:01 PM
Subject: [vpFREE] Re: Context

It's just laziness. People can find the time to be on all the time to get
their email & post their earthshaking thoughts but they can't find the

time

to edit their posts so that they're intelligible.

#3

Gary Bazuin wrote:

How about putting the reply at the beginning instead of the end ? If I don't
see it on the 1st screen the mouse pointer is closer to the delete than the
scroll down.

In your world, does English read from bottom to top? If not, it
probably makes more sense to put a reply below an (edited) message
that it replies to.

···

--
Pat O'Connell
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...

#4

If I don't see the body on the 1st screen I hit the delete button. Also when
clipping old stuff and yahoo headers it's easier just to clip the bottom.
Had to clip twice to make the message look like this.
Gary
Wrom: KYLEJGDGVCJVTLBXFGGMEPYOQKEDOTWFAO

···

----- Original Message -----
To: <vpFREE@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2003 7:27 PM
Subject: Re: [vpFREE] Re: Context
In your world, does English read from bottom to top? If not, it
probably makes more sense to put a reply below an (edited) message
that it replies to.

Pat O'Connell
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...

#5

g_bazuin@hotmail.com wrote:

If I don't see the body on the 1st screen I hit the delete button. Also when

I assume "body" above means the reply to the message.
If that's the case, then you'll miss a lot of stuff, especially if
someone is replying to several quoted points in the original message.

···

--
Pat O'Connell
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...

#6

In your world when you have a conversation do you repeat the whole
conversation before inserting new thoughts?
Yes in internet talk the body is the main message. An easy way to get the
last word in on this would be to put your reply more than 20 lines down. If
people don't know the proper way to reply, I don't care to read what they
say anyway.
Gary

···

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat O'Connell" <nvcaver@lvcm.com>
To: <vpFREE@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2003 8:25 PM
Subject: Re: [vpFREE] Re: Context

g_bazuin@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> If I don't see the body on the 1st screen I hit the delete button. Also

when

I assume "body" above means the reply to the message.
If that's the case, then you'll miss a lot of stuff, especially if
someone is replying to several quoted points in the original message.

--
Pat O'Connell
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...

vpFREE Links:
http://www.lvcm.com/tomesims/VP/Links.html

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

#7

This comment would be top posting, and is a comment without context.
See my "real" comments below.

Gary Bazuin wrote:

In your world when you have a conversation do you repeat the whole
conversation before inserting new thoughts?

Well, part of it at least, when replying on a mailgroup like this one,
or in Usenet (see below).

Yes in internet talk the body is the main message. An easy way to get the
last word in on this would be to put your reply more than 20 lines down. If
people don't know the proper way to reply, I don't care to read what they
say anyway.

Replying below the part of the message you're commenting on gives
context to the message and its reply. Replying above what you're
commenting on is called "top posting", and is a sure way to get flamed
(this message isn't a flame, by the way) or ignored on Usenet (aka
newsgroups), which are discussion groups that have been on the
Internet since the mid-80s, long before the Web existed.

This is a discussion group like those on Usenet , so it makes much
more sense to follow Usenet traditions and intersperse portions of the
original comment with the reply to that comment.

Most people that subscribe to this mailgroup follow these conventions.
If you want to ignore the convention, fine. However, top posting is
really hard to read, so your message will often be ignored.

···

--
Pat O'Connell
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...

#8

In your world when you have a conversation do you repeat the whole
conversation before inserting new thoughts?

Guess what. Internet discussions are not the same as a conversation.
There is no need to even attempt to apply the same rules. If you
insist on using conversation as the ideal model, then you must believe
that quoting text is not necessary no matter where you place it in
the message.

When someone quotes text, it is done to provide a context for their
new comments. It replaces the temporal context that one has in a
conversation. In this medium, it is often essential that one does
provide a context. In most communication, we provide the context
before we provide our input, even conversations. Putting the quoted
material after the new material is just plain backwards.

Yes in internet talk the body is the main message. An easy way to get the
last word in on this would be to put your reply more than 20
lines down. If
people don't know the proper way to reply, I don't care to read what they
say anyway.
Gary

Amazing! Are there really people so stupid to think like this? Perhaps
this comment was made for effect and is not really the way you feel.
I hope so. Does anyone really think that failure to use some
format, even a universally agreed upon format, (and I think that the
plurality of people put quoted text first) is a useful information
sieve.

QZ