Proper ettiquette for posting messages

Rick Stevens rstevens at vitalstream.com
Fri Jan 2 23:36:41 UTC 2004


Fritz Whittington wrote:
> On or about 2004-01-02 14:17, Rick Stevens whipped out a trusty #2
> pencil and scribbled:
> 
>  > Rodolfo J. Paiz wrote:
>  >
>  >> At 13:42 1/2/2004, you [[[the OP]]] wrote:
>  >>
>  >>> My first attempt at posting messages
>  >>> 
> (http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-January/msg00008.html)
>  >>> gave
>  >>> me what I wanted - a solution. But I do not appear to have the reply
>  >>> part of
>  >>> this figured out, as the responses are not placed where I want them
>  >>> to go.
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>
>  >> This is a specific featuer to your mail client. LookOut and LookOut
>  >> Express will always place the cursor for reply above the quoted text
>  >> (top-posting), which is great for one-on-one conversations but murder
>  >> for mailing lists and newsgroups (one-to-many communication). There
>  >> is no way to change that, I think, just more work for you. Eudora is
>  >> a lot more flexible and respects the standards.
>  >>
>  >>> Is there an ettiquette document? How should replies be formatted?
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>
>  >> All I can suggest off the top of my head is:
>  >>
>  >> http://www.charlescurley.com/netiquette.html
>  >>
>  >> Doubtless there are others.
>  >
>  >
>  > Try http://www.rhil.net/docs/rhil-guide.thml
>  >
>  > It was written for the redhat-install-list, but it's valid for this one,
>  > too.
>  > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>  > - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
>  > - VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
>  > -                                                                    -
>  > -         We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?       -
>  > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> A few things at http://www.rhil.net/docs/rhil-guide.html might need
> revision or explanation.  For instance, MIME is a no-no, but your own
> posting contains:
> 
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> and
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> 
> 
> (which I don't disagree with in the least!)  I'm just saying it doesn't
> fit what the guide says...

You're right.  It needs updating.  I didn't write it, but I know the
chap who did and I'll see that it gets updated.

> The guide also says to disable quoted-printable, and use 8-bit transfer,
> but you are using 7-bit transfer.

Crikey!  Am I?  I'll have to check on that.

> It also seems to me that anyone running either Fedora or even (gasp!)
> Windows would have ready access to a MIME-compliant (or at least
> MIME-tolerant, in the case of text) MUA.   Would someone running Fedora
> actually be reading his email on a PDP-11 using the 1983 version of
> Berkeley mail?  :-( Even the elm of that vintage was MIME-tolerant.

Hey, I used one of those!  I even used PDP-8s.  I tend to agree with
you, but the original netiquette guides were written when many people
only had access to ASR/KSR33 and 35 teletypes and mail was transferred
over HoneyDanBer uucp lines...hence the 72-character line limit request
(oh MAN, am I dating myself or what?).

And yes, I myself violate the "4-line .signature" recommendation (mine
are generally 6 lines--automatically generated).  I probably should fix
that.  After all, it's just a template.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
- Life:  That which happens while you search for the remote control. -
----------------------------------------------------------------------





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