top and bottom posting

[Derek Broughton]

R Kimber wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:45:40 -0300
> Derek Broughton wrote:
> 
>> > I'm guessing they do it that way because most companies (certainly the
>> > ones I've dealt with) do it that way, not because they design the stuff
>> > poorly, but because they have a different approach to information.
>> 
>> But that's an entirely different use-case from a mailing list.  It's
>> analogous to their snail-mail habit of stapling copies of all prior
>> correspondence to the back of their reply.  This is not a bad idea in
>> business mail, but it's a lousy way to carry on a discussion.
> 
> Well, of course one can define it as different on the ground that one is a
> mailing list and the other isn't, but I feel I am having a discussion with
> the company, e.g. on an issue with something I've bought from them, just
> as I have a discussion with people on the mailing list about fixing a
> problem
> with software.  To me what's going on is the same. It's just there are
> different practices in the two cases.

You miss the point - it's not "just" that there are different practices, 
there are different mediums.  Companies tend to do email that way, because 
they have no way of knowing what retention the recipients of the mail have - 
so you're essentially passing around an entire archive.  Email lists have 
always been more like newsgroups, and you can generally search an archive 
(though sometimes it takes a little more know-how than the average list-
member has) for anything you don't have in your own storage.

And it's _still_ a lousy way to have a discussion. :-)
-- 
derek