#2 in your list makes reading of long threads very difficult. Specially if someone is using a hand held device like phone to check email. What is suggested would improve readability greatly and perhaps make things simpler to follow.
On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:34 PM, Kevan Miller <[email protected]>wrote: > I follow a fair number of mailing lists. For some reason, I seem to have a > particularly hard time reading the Tuscany dev mailing list. One reason for > this is the volume of posts -- there is a lot of activity. However, I also > find that posts to the dev list can be difficult to read. > > With this in mind, I have a few suggestions... These are all pretty minor, > and have little to do with the actual content of dev list postings (which I > think are good). I hope these are useful... > > 1. Use plain text, not html. Seems like a lot of posters are using html. > Hint for GMail web interface users -- HTML is your default. To switch to > plain text, click the "Plain Text" link while composing an email. I believe > that this setting is sticky (i.e. it will last between composing emails and > between browser sessions). Use *bold* and SHOUT and "italics" if you feel > the need to enhance your message, not their rich text equivalents... > > 2. Edit your responses. A lot of "Reply" messages include the entire text > of the original email. I find myself spending a lot of time just scrolling > down through a new email to get to the "new" text at the bottom. Assume that > everyone is using an email client that is effective at following email > threads. It's easy to "replay" the state of the conversation. There's no > need to include the contents of entire discussion in every email... If > you're only responding to point #5 in an email response, make things simpler > for your readers by deleting points 1-4. Likewise, if you're only responding > to point #1, delete 2-5 -- that way, I don't have to scroll down to the end > of the email looking for anything more to read... This isn't dogma and be > sure and use editorial discretion -- no need to reduce the size of a 5 line > email. Also, be sure you leave enough text so that you're not altering > someone's meaning by taking their statements out-of-context. > > Those are my big hitters, one additional minor point: > > 3. Don't hijack threads. If you use "Reply" to create a new message and > change the "Subject" line, some email clients will still associate this new > email thread, with the previous one. It's called "thread hijacking" and you > end up with two logical threads of discussion on one physical thread. If you > want to "fork" a new discussion topic (e.g. both "reply" *and* start a new > subject), use "Reply" and copy/paste the text into a "New Message". > > --kevan >
