From: David Vallner <david@...>
Date: 2006-09-02T09:11:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Off topic: What is "top posting" ??

Messages with long quotes are "bad form" (even there are differing 
opinions indeed) unless the whole content of the quote is relevant to 
your reaction.  Which it usually isn't.

Using partial quotes is I think better because a lot of the topics are 
discussed in a similar fashion: a question is followed by a response, a 
prompt is followed by a reaction. So, keeping with the question / answer 
example: very often, a poster combines multiple related questions in a 
single message. To make it easier which of the answers you provide 
belongs to which question, you quote the questions, interspersed with 
the answers. However, it's common to answer all the questions you can in 
a single reply to avoid fragmenting the thread into a very complicated 
hierarchy of messages - this is hard to orientate in even with a 
threaded mail client. It also helps keep all material related to the 
thread topic as a whole in single messages.

Using nested quotes seems very, very rare. It usually happens when you 
want to correct someone's answer to a question, where that is still 
relevant and useful context. I almost never notice more levels of 
nesting quotes than that - usually it just means someone was too lazy to 
delete the irrelevant bits.

While it is possible to just glance down at the original post, it's 
tiresome to do so, and if the thread involves a more generic topic with 
several points to discuss, it's even more tiresome to look up what part 
of someone's reply is a reaction to.

Also, I believe you could strip quotations from the received email body 
on your side if you don't have a problem with keeping the relevant 
context from previous messages in your head.

Next, when replying, you don't necessarily need to use quotations. 
Referring to the context in your own words as you suggest is perfectly 
acceptable. However, for most people, using quotations is far faster, 
and if you expect a response to some query from the mailing list, it's 
easier to spot a quotation of what you originally wrote instead of its 
rephrasing.

David Vallner