[TriLUG] Email: HTML, replies, signatures, and signing

[William Sutton]

I used pine in college and still have a preference for it (and alpine, to 
a lesser extent).  HTML mail annoys me.  Unless there's a very good reason 
for markup, mail should be text.  Anything else, particularly funky colors 
and fonts, is abusive of the reader (another reason for pine, mutt, and 
the like).

I know there's endless flamewares and lots of divided opinion about top- 
vs. bottom- posting.  You're not going to satisfy everyone, so pick a 
style and stay with it.  I tend to prefer top-posting because I don't like 
scrolling past the 30 pages of replies (see also the recent not-Linux 
off-topic thread) to get to the latest response.  Sometimes I reply 
in-line to address various things item-by-item.  It's somewhat of the old 
newspaper concept of above-the-fold (what's important is above the fold, 
what's relevant is still on the first page or two, and everything else is 
out of sight).

I'm not a big fan of quotes or signatures.  For business correspondence 
and job searches, I sign with my name, address, and contact phone number. 
Other than that, a name is sufficient.  Some security-conscious (or 
paranoid) people will say that a name is insufficient.  I don't have an 
opinion on that.

my $0.02.

William Sutton

On Sat, 22 Nov 2008, James Tuttle wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Hi,
>
> I've been playing around with email configuration and wondered if others
> would mind sharing opinions.
>
> HTML?  I've never written HTML email till now mostly as a result of
> using Pine in college.  It seems like pretty much everyone can accept it
> and I find that when I reply and leave quoted text in my reply it's
> pretty damned ugly.
>
> Replies?  Reply above the quote or below?  I've tried not to top-post,
> but it's annoying to others to reply below the quote, I suspect.
>
>
> Signatures? Email signature below the quote when replying or above?  I
> have been replying above the quote and placing the signature below, but
> that seems difficult for some to figure out.
>
> Signing?  I've been signing in-line and probably annoying people with
> the SHA-1 hash crap at the start of my email.  Almost no one knows what
> it means.  Yesterday I started signing with PGP/Mime, which is perhaps a
> little less obnoxious.  Any thoughts on signing and in-line versus PGP/Mime?
>
> Thanks,
> Jim
> - --
> - --
> - ---Jim Tuttle
> - ------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.braggtown.com
> PGP Key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x69B69B08
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAkkoV0cACgkQm4WzRNwT+xmowACZAdlw3wR9Y9t6PFD+vdXXFji9
> eWsAn0Sgm2yyHN6jaqbN+3nTb9/E9l80
> =f5Tl
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> --
> TriLUG mailing list        : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG FAQ  : http://www.trilug.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions
>
>