On Tue, 6 Nov 2001, Gary Fisher wrote:

> The "problem" you're seeing is caused not by malicious behavior but by the
> way many email programs handle replies in html

Those problems can easily be overcome by a little common sense:

* Don't send HTML mails to the list.
* Don't include everything in a reply, just so much to retain the context.

If you were never given a proper introduction how to politely use this
medium, it would be a great idea to study the "Mailing List Etiquette",
especially the section about formatting and quoting (attached below).

-- Bert

http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/ml-etiquette.html

Are there any important formatting considerations?

Visual formatting is very important in a textual medium like email.  If
your postings are poorly formatted, they will be hard to read, and
people will tire of them quickly.  As a result, fewer people will read
what you write to the end, and many will begin to skip your posts
entirely.

Most importantly, learn to use the enter (or return) key on your
keyboard.  The video display width of many network users is limited to
80 columns, and text which wraps beyond that length is quite a bit more
difficult to read.  Since your text may be indented when quoted by
others you should keep your lines to a maximum length somewhere below
that point -- around 70 characters is a good target.  There are of
course exceptions, such as wide tables, and long URLs, but the rule is
to keep it well under 80.

Be careful if you use a program which wraps your posts when you send
them.  If you wrap at a wider column than it does, you may end up with
alternating long and short lines where it wraps one or two words from
each long line, but fails to join them to the next.  If you know that
your software operates this way, you may be best off to simply write
each paragraph as one long line, and let it do all the wrapping.  Be
very sure that this is the case though, as postings that come through
with really long, single line paragraphs are also annoying to read.

Wrapping at a considerably narrower margin, such as 40 characters is
also more difficult to read, as one must page down much more often.
However, don't be afraid to use blank lines to separate your paragraphs,
and do break your text into paragraphs.  In fact, keeping paragraphs
fairly short is also easier to read; around ten lines is a good upper
limit.

Be careful when using tabs for indenting, as they will display
differently on other platforms.  Also, avoid control characters and
other fancy visual effects which are likely platform specific.  When
composing (and reading) mail, you're best to stick with a mono-spaced
font (as opposed to proportionally spaced), and avoid anything other
than the most basic text you can use to get your message across.

When replying, should I quote the previous message?

Most certainly.  You should always provide some context to your replies
so that people who may not have been following the thread closely, or
who have other things on their minds will easily be able to determine
what you're talking about.

However, when quoting, be very careful to edit the quoted sections down
to the bare minimum of text needed to maintain the context for your
reply.  There is very little on a mailing list that is more annoying
than paging through a few pages of quoted text only to read a few lines
at the end.  Also be careful that you clearly indicate what text you're
quoting (as opposed to what you're writing), and if possible, cite the
author of the original text.

If your mail program wants to attach the whole message you're replying
to on the end of your replies, please do not let it do this if you can
possibly avoid it.  It is a good thing to include excerpts from previous
messages with your replies to maintain a logical flow of discussion, but
it is almost always a bad thing to include the entire text of a message
being replied to, be it at the start or end of your reply.