At 11:10 PM 2/7/03 -0800, Harold B wrote (in part) the following:
I've seen this suggestion re email ... "Do NOT type your reply at the end of the original email. I know it sounds logical, but the recipient has to scroll down to the bottom to read it. And he can't read your message in his preview panel." I've also read (I think it was right here in PCWorks), that it is best to configure the email to have the response at the bottom of the thread. Are there any thoughts on this dilemma?
Once upon a time before MS ever existed ALL e-mail and messaging systems used bottom posting. It's a historical thing! Here is a rough timeline of some important dates concerning messaging, e-mail, and the Internet.
1971 - First ARPANET e-mail message sent by Ray Tomlinson 1978 - Ward Christensen writes the first BBS system software. First form of messaging for PCs. All replies to messages were added to the bottom. I started using BBSs in 1979. 1979 - USENET established using UUCP between Duke University and University of North Carolina. Usenet still relies heavily today on newsreaders that apply bottom posting. 1981 - Release of IBM PROFS word processing system for VM. First word processing and e-mail message system for mainframes. Relied heavily on bottom posting. 1982 - The term "Internet" is coined. 1983 - ">" added to show material that is quoted. USENET newreaders. 1985 - LISTERV mailing list work started for BITNET academic network. The first version of this Revised LISTSERV was released in June 1986 for IBM mainframes runing VM. The first versions of LISTSERV for UNIX and VMS were released in June 1994. Because this mailing list program originated on IBM mainframes, bottom posting was the standard. This is where I learned my Internet mailing list etiquette. 1985 - Quantum Qlink dialup launched for Commodore PCs. Forerunner of AOL. 1988 - Eudora, first written by Steve Dorner, an employee at the University of Illinois. Eudora 1.0 was released in May of 1990. The is my first Internet e-mail GUI client program. The original versions all used bottom posting. 1989 - Pine was originally conceived as a simple, easy-to-use mailer for administrative staff at the University of Washington in Seattle. Used Elm (another bottom posting e-mail program) as the starting point because the code was freely available. Pine 1.0.3 released April 17, 1991. This is my first UNIX shell account mail program which I still use. It originally was configured as a bottom posting mail program. 1989 - IBM introduces the Office Vision system for VM, VMS, MVS. This is the standard e-mail/calendaring/messaging system for IBM mainframes. I was the system administrator for our company's e-mail system. I also taught this system to new employees. This also was designed as a bottom poster. 1991 - DOS version of AOL launched. 1993 - first version of PC-Pine (3.84) released in July. I used this with my shell account via SLiRP. This version was also a bottom poster. 1993 - Mosaic, the first graphics-based Web browser developed at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) University of Illinois, is released. 1994 - Netscape Communications Corp. is formed. 1995 - MS delivers first version of IE and Internet standards are forever tossed by the wayside in favor of MS developed "standards". Bottom posting is the oldest established method of replying to e-mail or USENET postings on the Internet. It is also the oldest method used in general use in replying on any messaging system. IMHO it is also the most logical as it shows that the sender is in a dialogue with the recipient or other posters. It makes it easy for new subscribers to a mailing list to follow a conversational thread. It's just logical. -- Gerry Boyd ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
