On 2018-05-13 16:12, tech-lists wrote:
basically, people quote back way too much. This is the issue. Most email apps allow threaded mail, so very little need to quote whole screeds.
My rule of thumb is usually, I quote as much text as is needed so that my reply makes sense without searching older mails. While you are right that many mail clients *can* display threaded mail in a nice manner, definitely not all clients actually *do* so, or are configured so by default. So I do not make assumptions if my communication partner does look at the same happy little tree of messages that I am.
I usually won't quote complete paragraphs or even full messages if possible. But just a single "Do you agree with me?" as a quote from a pretty long, ongoing conversation is way too less IMHO.
But after all, it all depends on personal preference. If I had an electronic conversation with someone who said that they get confused by my way of quoting, then I would respect that and imitate their way. Maybe after the discussion, or in person if applicable, I would bring it up again and see if I can at least implant some idea to them, but I have long given up to convince someone to change their style they use for years.
-- Flo
