> On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 2:33 PM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> > wrote: >> (I have been asked to refrain from bottom posting on J forums, but >> I'll make an exception for people that use that format.) > > Here's the request, by the way: > http://www.jsoftware.com/pipermail/general/2011-May/034524.html
Your message prompted my following thoughts about posting replies on J forums: I first began using the Internet in 1993 (nearly 20 years ago), and I'm sure that others have been on since long before that. When I first began using Usenet (sort of the predecessor of today's forums and blogs) and sending email, the "standard" convention at that time is what your cited Wikipedia article calls "interleaved reply style". The point (and it was FORCEFULLY made to many "transgressors") was that Internet resources (such as bandwidth) were valuable and NOT to be wasted with unnecessary verbosity. Thus, it was important in replying to quote ONLY as much of a previous message as was necessary to give enough context to understand each portion of your reply. Internet RFC 1855 (Netiquette Guidelines) states: "Be brief without being overly terse. When replying to a message, include enough original material to be understood but no more. It is extremely bad form to simply reply to a message by including all the previous message: edit out all the irrelevant material." Furthermore, although Internet speeds (I started at 300 baud) have increased radically in the past 20 years and PC memories and CPU speeds have likewise increased, Internet resources are still finite: more bits that travel down the same communications channel eventually slow down the traffic for everybody. Researchers have suggested that spam emails, for example, currently account for 60% of all Internet email messages. Can you imagine the difference if that wastage of resources were eliminated? I feel that the same principle should be considered in all Internet traffic. I am particularly sensitive to such wastage because my dial-up access makes it so apparent. (My concern is not with speed but with unthinking wastage of Internet resources just because one can.) Although I defend freedom of speech, I am disappointed when that freedom is not accompanied by responsibility, such as concern for the Internet as a SHARED resource. I currently do not have the financial means (as apparently many or most others do) to afford broadband access (my original 300 baud has now increased over the years to 56K dial-up access). The immediately following example is NOT the case with J forums (since attachments are prohibited), but, with slower dial-up access (compared with broadband posters who seem to have little concern about others), I get quite irked over messages with multi-megabyte attachments that keep getting dragged along with every reply, making the replies grow and grow as they continue. However, following a top reply style (or a bottom reply style) is the textual equivalent of such "growing" attachments. To me, the J forums are NOT an office environment with supervisors above me, where full messages and/or threads may be a corporate requirement for legal or other purposes. The J forum archives contain all messages, even available for searching by thread, if necessary. I feel that a requirement (or expectation) of top or bottom reply styles to carry full threads (or at least the full message being replied to) in every message is completely unnecessary in an environment that encourages free and open discussion. To me, the interleaved reply style, which has been in use in open discussions on the Internet for at least 20 years (probably closer to 30-35 years), serves admirably as a vehicle for discussion groups. (Quotations aren't even necessary in some replies if the reply itself, or even the subject line, gives enough context.) Summarizing the above, I feel that reply style is a matter of taste, freedom of speech, and a responsible concern for Internet resources. I agree completely with a famous quotation that started each Sunday program of a 1950s TV series that I watched as a kid with my father: "I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (misattrib. Voltaire). Until required or persuaded otherwise, I will continue posting messages in the J forums in the style that I think works best for me and, hopefully, for the readers of my messages. Harvey ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
