On 30 September 2011 16:48, Dennis E. Hamilton <[email protected]> wrote: > Who says what the average size is? Who has measured it. Where are the > numbers?
Common practice is what I refer to. I don;t have numbers but take a random dip into as many lists as you like on markmail which (at the time of writing) has 8,393 lists and 60,045,432 messages for you to sample. Just click http://markmail.org/search/?q=RE and you will get the most recent mails that are replies on all of those lists. A quick sampling of the first ten will answer the first of your two questions above. If you have the time you could also answer the third (but I doubt any of us have the time for that). I just did this and got 7 inline response style, two top post and one combination post (top and inline) - your results will be for a separate random sample of course. I realise that my subject line is unnecessarily confrontational, sorry for that. I could certainly have chosen a different one. Maybe you would not have felt this was some kind of personal attack on you. It is not. I have no more to say on the matter. People will continue to post in the way that they prefer (or must as a result of their chosen clients). Those who are undecided and unrestricted will hopefully make a more informed decision now (for clarity I say "more informed" which does not mean they will necessarily choose what I say is the right way). Ross > > I'm really tired of this and I am sorely disappointed that it arose here. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ross Gardler [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 05:40 > To: [email protected]; [email protected] > Subject: Re: Top posting is bad > > On 30 September 2011 13:18, Dennis E. Hamilton <[email protected]> > wrote: >> "bad" may be "unpleasant for you" but how about looking at the >> interoperability challenges and not encouraging belief that there >> is a silver-bullet, one-size fits all fiat when the only thing >> that works is civility. > > There is no one-size fits all, this is true. But there is an "average > size which suits more" (I have no idea why you bring civility into > this, this was a perfectly reasonable request to improve the quality > of our online communications based on a great deal of personal and > collective experience of what works for ASF projects - and non-ASF > projects alike). > > For open source projects the generally accepted "average size" is to > use inline posting, e.g. > > "When quoting someone else's mail, insert your responses where they're > most appropriate, at several different places if necessary, and trim > off the parts of their mail you didn't use." from the "bible of open > source project management" (my opinion) Producing Open Source [1] > > or if you want a wider discussion then > > "This style makes it easier for readers to identify the points of the > original message that are being replied to; in particular, whether the > reply misunderstood or ignored some point of the original text." > (wikipedia [2]) > > or perhaps something a little more "official" > > "If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you > summarize the original at the top of the message, or include just > enough text of the original to give a context. This will make > sure readers understand when they start to read your response. > Since NetNews, especially, is proliferated by distributing the > postings from one host to another, it is possible to see a > response to a message before seeing the original. Giving context > helps everyone. But do not include the entire original!" from > Netiquette Guidelines (RFC 1855) [3] > > and back to an observation in Wikipedia: > > "Interleaved reply combined with top-posting combines the advantages > of both styles. " [2] > > Ross > > [1] http://producingoss.com/ > [2] > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Choosing_the_proper_posting_style > [3] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1855 > > -- Ross Gardler (@rgardler) Programme Leader (Open Development) OpenDirective http://opendirective.com
