[Klug-general] Mailing list etiquette, again (was: The other side of sympathy (was: Folkestone Earthquake Appeal))

[Shish]

My initial reaction to this was "WTF? Is this spam? It seems to be a
collection of out of order / totally unrelated messages, posted as a
new thread with a randomly generated title o_O"


To explain:

> [Klug-general] The other side of sympathy

Is a new thread, started as a reply to an existing one. And not only a
new thread, but with a new title (even though the existing title of
"Folkestone Earthquake Appeal" was fine). And not only a new thread
with a new title, but a title which makes no sense without the context
of the existing thread (which there's no way to link it to)


> Oh yuk, actually yuk yuk  :-). It was generally the lesser corner of 
> bedsitland that copped it the most although there was damage all over 
> the town.

Say what? Out of context, this seems to be a collection of random
words. I've seen spam make more sense...

But a-ha, there IS context! The context is just placed *after* the
message it gives context to:

> I saw that list of requested relief items when the Birmingham tornado hit.
> It's a classic and I am sure will be edited for all future natural
> disasters in the UK.
> I can't wait for a real life 'The Day After Tomorrow' as it will make
> for a very interesting news day.

Two messages at the same level of indentation read as though they are
a single message, reading it as such is very confusing. AND it's top
posted, so the second paragraph of this seemingly-single message is
actually supposed to be read before the first!


] > short quote to establish context
] 
] reply to quote
] 
] > short quote to establish context
] 
] reply to quote

is *so* much easier to read than

] reply to message
] 
] message which comes before reply
] 
] > entire message
] >
] >> unrelated quote
] >>
] >> mailing list sig
] > mailing list sig
] mailing list sig
] mailing list sig

    -- Shish