Rails - Nov 2011 - subject lines, threading

On Nov 6, 2011, at 9:24 AM, Dave Aronson wrote:
> In case my subtlety is lost on you, lemme ''splain: if you start
> writing about something other than what the conversation was
> originally about, take a few seconds to change the Subject line of the
> message.
For those who may not know (I didn''t always), don''t use
"reply" in this case either, because that preserves headers which will
cause many mail readers to put the message in the old thread, despite the change
of subject line... (I almost forgot for this message.)

But really, it''s all the same concept--being polite to the people whom
you''re asking for help. Take time to be clear with your question, use a
relevant concise subject line, quote helpfully not lazily in responses,
don''t hijack threads.

Top-post annoys me somewhat because of the backward flow when reading those
questions. But quoting a whole message with extensive quotes in it already, and
then posting some tiny new bit at the end--sheesh--I don''t read those.
If there''s multiple levels of quotes showing, and I have to scroll to
get to new content, I just move on instead because right then I assume the
poster is just too fucking lazy for me to bother with.


-- 
Scott Ribe
scott_ribe-ZCQMRMivIIdUL8GK/JU1Wg@public.gmane.org
http://www.elevated-dev.com/
(303) 722-0567 voice





-- 
Scott Ribe
scott_ribe-ZCQMRMivIIdUL8GK/JU1Wg@public.gmane.org
http://www.elevated-dev.com/
(303) 722-0567 voice




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On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 12:00, Scott Ribe
<scott_ribe-oLpdKesOropn0q4rP9l2pw@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> don''t use "reply" in this case either, because that
preserves headers
> which will cause many mail readers to put the message in the old thread,
>despite the change of subject line... (I almost forgot for this message.)
D''oh!  Yes, I keep forgetting about that.  It is a good bit more
effort than just changing the Subject line though, so I can''t really
fault anyone for not bothering with that.
> But really, it''s all the same concept--being polite to the people
whom you''re asking for help.
Yup.  esr may have an abrasive style, but his "smart questions" essay
contains a lot of excellent advice.  For those who haven''t seen it
yet:

 www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

I also summarized it on my "excellence" blog at
http://www.dare2xl.com/2010/10/help-wanted.html .
> quoting a whole message with extensive quotes in it already, and
> then posting some tiny new bit at the end--
...
> I assume the poster is just too fucking lazy for me to bother with.
/aol, +1, or whatever the latest equivalent is.  ;-)

-Dave

-- 
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