Sender: Kirk Is From: Kirk Is Subject: Quoting Email/news Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Organization: http://kisrael.com User-Agent: tin/1.4.4-20000803 ("Vet for the Insane") (UNIX) (SunOS/5.7 (sun4u)) Lines: 28 Message-ID: Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 14:27:47 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 130.64.23.37 X-Complaints-To: news@tufts.edu X-Trace: news.tufts.edu 1005229667 130.64.23.37 (Thu, 08 Nov 2001 09:27:47 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 09:27:47 EST Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!nntp-relay.ihug.net!ihug.co.nz!logbridge.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!news.tufts.edu!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94059 Does anyone know when the quoting during replies to email and usenet news became popular? Based on my limited exposure to early e-mail programs which are often configured not to launch any kind of editor, I'm assuming it was a later development. I'm also interested in the conventions for quoting, how they came about. For instance, using ">" along the left side of quoted material...was it always >? You still see some alternatives around, especially ~. The other convention is where you write your response relative to the quoted material...in longer discussions, the point by point intermingling of quoted material and new material is a nice option. Because of my Usenet upbringing and its emphasis on "quote at top/reply on bottom", I applied that rule for a long time to e-mail, but since then I've joined the masses and usually put my reply on top. (This is facilitated by fast client side editors, where pushing the text down doesn't have noticeable screen redraw times.) Especially in business settints, people are more likely to keep the entire body of an email there through out a conversation. -- QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal You Shall Not Subject Your God To Market Forces! --Book of Om, Chap. IV v.6b ("Small Gods",Terry Pratchett) ###### From: R.J.S.@not.a.net Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 10:47:46 -0500 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 8 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: p-817.newsdawg.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.548 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: super7.dnpg.com X-Original-Trace: 8 Nov 2001 10:37:35 -0500, super7.dnpg.com Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!howland.erols.net!newscon04-ext.news.prodigy.com.MISMATCH!newscon02.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!pln-e!spln!dex!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!web.dnpg.com Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94078 >Does anyone know when the quoting during replies to email and usenet news >became popular? Based on my limited exposure to early e-mail programs >which are often configured not to launch any kind of editor, I'm assuming >it was a later development. Hmm, I always used EMACS to read my mail. The editor running the mail system under it. ###### From: Alistair Gale Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 12:51:46 -0400 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 30 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: p-658.newsdawg.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.553 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!pln-e!spln!dex!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!enews4 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94077 Incorrectly placed reply, disturbs flow of conversation, lacks context. Followed by massive requote. NEXT! On Thu, 08 Nov 2001 14:27:47 GMT, Kirk Is wrote: >Does anyone know when the quoting during replies to email and usenet news >became popular? Based on my limited exposure to early e-mail programs >which are often configured not to launch any kind of editor, I'm assuming >it was a later development. > >I'm also interested in the conventions for quoting, how they came about. >For instance, using ">" along the left side of quoted material...was it >always >? You still see some alternatives around, especially ~. > >The other convention is where you write your response relative to the >quoted material...in longer discussions, the point by point intermingling >of quoted material and new material is a nice option. Because of my >Usenet upbringing and its emphasis on "quote at top/reply on bottom", I >applied that rule for a long time to e-mail, but since then I've joined >the masses and usually put my reply on top. (This is facilitated by fast >client side editors, where pushing the text down doesn't have noticeable >screen redraw times.) Especially in business settints, people are more >likely to keep the entire body of an email there through out a >conversation. ###### From: rsteiner@isis.visi.com (Richard C. Steiner) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news References: Organization: Vector Internet Services, Inc. Message-ID: User-Agent: slrn/0.9.5.4 (UNIX) Lines: 31 Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 19:22:09 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.98.98.8 X-Complaints-To: abuse@visi.com X-Trace: ruti.visi.com 1005247329 209.98.98.8 (Thu, 08 Nov 2001 13:22:09 CST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 13:22:09 CST Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-xfer.siscom.net!news-out.visi.com!hermes.visi.com!ruti.visi.com!rsteiner Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94068 In article , Kirk Is wrote: >Does anyone know when the quoting during replies to email and usenet news >became popular? Based on my limited exposure to early e-mail programs >which are often configured not to launch any kind of editor, I'm assuming >it was a later development. Not sure. I don't remember using quoting myself until fairly late (1988) when I was first exposed to FIDO. Before that, I usually used real-time chat stuff (VAX/VMS PHONE or "talk" programs in MULTI under NOS) for any extended conversations, and e-mail was used more for one-shot notes. >I'm also interested in the conventions for quoting, how they came about. >For instance, using ">" along the left side of quoted material...was it >always >? You still see some alternatives around, especially ~. The FIDO and RIME convention used on BBS networks also commonly includes first and last initials in the quote prefix, e.g. Joe Black said: JB> Quoted text is placed JB> here... My response... -- -Rich Steiner >>>---> http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner >>>---> Eden Prairie, MN Written online using slrn 0.9.5.4! The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then. ###### From: "Charlie Gibbs" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: 08 Nov 01 09:55:24 -0800 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 24 Message-ID: <1007.712T1229T5954998@nowhere.in.particular> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: p-571.newsdawg.com X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!feed2.onemain.com!feed1.onemain.com!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp.abs.net!pln-e!spln!dex!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!enews2 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94082 In article kirkspam@alienbill.com (Kirk Is) writes: >The other convention is where you write your response relative to >the quoted material...in longer discussions, the point by point >intermingling of quoted material and new material is a nice option. >Because of my Usenet upbringing and its emphasis on "quote at >top/reply on bottom", I applied that rule for a long time to e-mail, >but since then I've joined the masses and usually put my reply on top. Joined the masses, or been herded there by Bill and his minions? I'm sure that if Outlook (more properly pronounced "Look out!") defaulted to putting new text at the bottom, most people would post that way. One of these days I'm going to write a news/mail filter that deletes all top-postings, as well as those that include HTML. Let's see, that's about #1,387 on my to-do list. Until then, there's always my "n" key... -- cgibbs@nowhere.in.particular (Charlie Gibbs) I'm switching ISPs - watch this space. ###### From: jmfbahciv@aol.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: Fri, 09 Nov 01 09:53:19 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 40 Message-ID: <9sgfvp$d01$3@bob.news.rcn.net> References: <1007.712T1229T5954998@nowhere.in.particular> X-Trace: UmFuZG9tSVZGGh/Q/t4muROumT4N52prDAtkfEKwh7YERqUAxTeh8upqEXlB0Qpl X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Nov 2001 11:51:21 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!news.netcologne.de!newsfeed.online.be!europa.netcrusader.net!usenetserver.com!207.172.3.44!feed2.news.rcn.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!207-172-216-4 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94126 In article <1007.712T1229T5954998@nowhere.in.particular>, "Charlie Gibbs" wrote: >In article kirkspam@alienbill.com >(Kirk Is) writes: > >>The other convention is where you write your response relative to >>the quoted material...in longer discussions, the point by point >>intermingling of quoted material and new material is a nice option. >>Because of my Usenet upbringing and its emphasis on "quote at >>top/reply on bottom", I applied that rule for a long time to e-mail, >>but since then I've joined the masses and usually put my reply on top. > >Joined the masses, or been herded there by Bill and his minions? >I'm sure that if Outlook (more properly pronounced "Look out!") >defaulted to putting new text at the bottom, most people would >post that way. I did a real estate trasaction via e-mail this summer. The other guy only did that top posting shit. A side effect of that was the reader only read the _first screen_ of text and never stepped down to read the whole message I wrote. You would not believe how much trouble that caused. Two days after fighting back and forth the other guy finally read the whole damn text of the original post. BEWARE TOP-ONLY WRITERS. > >One of these days I'm going to write a news/mail filter that >deletes all top-postings, as well as those that include HTML. >Let's see, that's about #1,387 on my to-do list. Until then, >there's always my "n" key... > Wow! You have a short list ;-). /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. ###### From: "Charlie Gibbs" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: 09 Nov 01 12:48:43 -0800 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 24 Message-ID: <856.713T2174T7685339@nowhere.in.particular> References: <1007.712T1229T5954998@nowhere.in.particular> <3beb3382.35184156@news.ocis.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: p-783.newsdawg.com X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!upp1.onvoy!onvoy.com!pln-e!spln!dex!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!enews1 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94155 In article <3beb3382.35184156@news.ocis.net> genew@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) writes: >"Charlie Gibbs" wrote: > >>Joined the masses, or been herded there by Bill and his minions? >>I'm sure that if Outlook (more properly pronounced "Look out!") >>defaulted to putting new text at the bottom, most people would >>post that way. > > I use Free Agent. A reply starts with the cursor positioned >at the beginning. How does Look Out! differ? I wouldn't know. I don't do news or mail on a Windoze box. :-) With all that I've heard and seen of security problems, I won't even let my Win98 box near the net - it's strictly for compiling programs for people who insist on using operating systems which are Broken As Designed [tm]. -- cgibbs@nowhere.in.particular (Charlie Gibbs) I'm switching ISPs - watch this space. ###### Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news References: Organization: UC Santa Cruz CIS/CE From: eugene@cse.ucsc.edu (Eugene Miya) NNTP-Posting-Host: sundance.cse.ucsc.edu Message-ID: <3beb09b4$1@news.ucsc.edu> Date: 8 Nov 2001 14:39:48 -0800 X-Trace: 8 Nov 2001 14:39:48 -0800, sundance.cse.ucsc.edu Lines: 45 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!news.ucsc.edu!eugene Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94093 In article , Kirk Is wrote: >Does anyone know when the quoting during replies to email and usenet news >became popular? Based on my limited exposure to early e-mail programs >which are often configured not to launch any kind of editor, I'm assuming >it was a later development. It's called attributed text. It was part of the earliest ARPA email systems and might predate email on Doug Engelbart's NLS system (mid 60s). >I'm also interested in the conventions for quoting, how they came about. >For instance, using ">" along the left side of quoted material...was it >always >? You still see some alternatives around, especially ~. TAB has been used, vertical bar | have been used (also for changes). ~ was used by Bill Joy in vi to denote unused lines at the bottom of a screen. All this is highly dependent upon your terminal characteristics (termcap really has to go down as a great invention) and they character sets available on your type of hardware. >The other convention is where you write your response relative to the >quoted material...in longer discussions, the point by point intermingling >of quoted material and new material is a nice option. I first saw it on the SPACE-DIGEST mailing list. So it easily goes back to the late 70s early 80s. >Because of my >Usenet upbringing and its emphasis on "quote at top/reply on bottom", That's merely where Brian and Erik's cursor placed one when starting a follow up. It's more indicative of the L-R T-D parsing of the English language. >I applied that rule for a long time to e-mail, but since then I've joined >the masses and usually put my reply on top. (This is facilitated by fast >client side editors, where pushing the text down doesn't have noticeable >screen redraw times.) Especially in business settings, people are more >likely to keep the entire body of an email there through out a >conversation. Better to throw out (edit) useless text. Email is a poor means to try to keep local context. ###### From: Wolfgang Schwanke Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 02:57:22 +0100 Organization: disorganised Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: wolfi@snafu.de NNTP-Posting-Host: pd95016ee.dip0.t-ipconnect.de Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: Xnews/4.06.22 X-No-Archive: yes Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsmi-eu.news.garr.it!NewsITBone-GARR!fu-berlin.de!unlisys!news.snafu.de!koepenick.wolfi!nobody Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94135 Kirk Is wrote in news:DDwG7.1004$l2.50837@news.tufts.edu: I don't know much about the history of quoting styles, but a comment on this: > Especially in business > settints, people are more likely to keep the entire body of an email > there through out a conversation. The accepted quoting style: trimming the original, insert comments phrase- by-phrase, is IMHO self explanatory. The reply is inserted into the context previous message. Keeping the entire history of an exchange is arguably useful if you want to keep a dialogue intact for readers who later receive copies via cc: or forward. But this can also be done with the quoting on top, new content in the bottom style. No need to upside down it, which is increasingly popular. Otherwhise, the new content top, quoting bottom style was IMHO introduced by net newbies, who were seduced to do so by their email software. They didn't realise that the editor inserted a copy of the previous message for their convenience to edit their replies into it, because they never saw a properly edited reply before. So they put their reply on top. Other newbies then copied this style from each other, so it became a "standard" with newbies. Business people are in general newbies, which is why they do it too. Regards -- wolfi@snafu.de | | wolfi@deltatag.de IRC: wolfi|anorak http://www.deltatag.de/~wolfi/ Bitte vergessen Sie nicht, Ihre Antenne zu erden ###### Sender: Kirk Is From: Kirk Is Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers References: Organization: http://kisrael.com User-Agent: tin/1.4.4-20000803 ("Vet for the Insane") (UNIX) (SunOS/5.7 (sun4u)) Lines: 28 Message-ID: Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 03:32:24 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 130.64.23.37 X-Complaints-To: news@tufts.edu X-Trace: news.tufts.edu 1005276744 130.64.23.37 (Thu, 08 Nov 2001 22:32:24 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 22:32:24 EST Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-lei1.dfn.de!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!news.tufts.edu!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94131 Wolfgang Schwanke wrote: > Keeping the entire history of an exchange is arguably useful if you want to > keep a dialogue intact for readers who later receive copies via cc: or > forward. But this can also be done with the quoting on top, new content in > the bottom style. No need to upside down it, which is increasingly popular. > Otherwhise, the new content top, quoting bottom style was IMHO introduced > by net newbies, who were seduced to do so by their email software. They > didn't realise that the editor inserted a copy of the previous message for > their convenience to edit their replies into it, because they never saw a > properly edited reply before. So they put their reply on top. Other newbies > then copied this style from each other, so it became a "standard" with > newbies. Business people are in general newbies, which is why they do it > too. Interesting, you give a good reason why "keeping context" is arguably useful (actually, I find myself increasing the CCs often, and the history is useful to have, though I'll admit to the earlier poster that it's an inefficient way of storing that) but I disagree with you that top quoting is a strictly newbie thing... after all, it does save the paging down when the conversation gets long, and when it becomes a widely adopted convention, it does speed the reading or skimming process quite a bit. ###### From: jrlatala@shell.golden.net Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site Lines: 20 Message-ID: <9sfl45$eke$1@shell.golden.net> References: Date: 8 Nov 2001 23:12:53 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.166.210.115 X-Complaints-To: abuse@golden.net X-Trace: radon.golden.net 1005279175 199.166.210.115 (Thu, 08 Nov 2001 23:12:55 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 23:12:55 EST Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!howland.erols.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!radon.golden.net!shell.golden.net!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94129 In article , Wolfgang Schwanke wrote: >Keeping the entire history of an exchange is arguably useful if you want to >keep a dialogue intact for readers who later receive copies via cc: or >forward. But this can also be done with the quoting on top, new content in >the bottom style. No need to upside down it, which is increasingly popular. Back in the old days I'd used a program that let multiple people make changes to a report/file in such a fashion that you could always retrieve previous versions. Think SCCS/RCS for English text instead of for programs. I think it came out of MIT but don't hold me to that. Also the name DELPHI keeps popping into my head but I'm not sure if that's it or not. All in all it was kind of neat because you could do running commentaries on it as you used it to argue with somebody over changes to the contents. -- john R. Latala jrlatala@golden.net ###### From: genew@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 05:36:25 GMT Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: <3beb3382.35184156@news.ocis.net> Reply-To: genew@mail.ocis.net References: <1007.712T1229T5954998@nowhere.in.particular> X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230 X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 38 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed.online.be!sn-xit-01!sn-xit-02!sn-xit-04!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94108 "Charlie Gibbs" wrote: >In article kirkspam@alienbill.com >(Kirk Is) writes: > >>The other convention is where you write your response relative to >>the quoted material...in longer discussions, the point by point >>intermingling of quoted material and new material is a nice option. >>Because of my Usenet upbringing and its emphasis on "quote at >>top/reply on bottom", I applied that rule for a long time to e-mail, >>but since then I've joined the masses and usually put my reply on top. Sold your soul? >Joined the masses, or been herded there by Bill and his minions? >I'm sure that if Outlook (more properly pronounced "Look out!") >defaulted to putting new text at the bottom, most people would >post that way. I use Free Agent. A reply starts with the cursor positioned at the beginning. How does Look Out! differ? To me, this make great sense as I can then go through the post and reply. >One of these days I'm going to write a news/mail filter that >deletes all top-postings, as well as those that include HTML. >Let's see, that's about #1,387 on my to-do list. Until then, >there's always my "n" key... Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation: I have preferences. You have biases. He/She has prejudices. ###### From: spam+@orion-com.com (Joe Thompson) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: 9 Nov 2001 14:56:13 GMT Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 29 Message-ID: References: <1007.712T1229T5954998@nowhere.in.particular> <3beb3382.35184156@news.ocis.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 3f.1a.c6.74 User-Agent: slrn/0.9.6.3 (Linux) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!fu-berlin.de!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp.abs.net!newshub2.home.com!news.home.com!news.mindspring.net!spam+ Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94097 On Fri, 09 Nov 2001 05:36:25 GMT, Gene Wirchenko wrote: > "Charlie Gibbs" wrote: > >Joined the masses, or been herded there by Bill and his minions? > >I'm sure that if Outlook (more properly pronounced "Look out!") > >defaulted to putting new text at the bottom, most people would > >post that way. > > I use Free Agent. A reply starts with the cursor positioned at > the beginning. How does Look Out! differ? Outlook (the full version, not Express) defaults to RTF encoding or some such, instead of plain ASCII, and starts with the quoted text indented by a tab setting, not by quote characters. There's also an unindented space at the top. The net effect of all this is, if you try to reply inline, you have to go back and unindent and uncolor your text manually, which is a huge pain, or you have to set an entire constellation of preferences just right. I gave up and top-posted in business e-mails, but never in USENET. (I also ditched that terrible blue color for quoted text and started using the dark purple in the palette, which made me stand out to my co-workers, especially as I was well-known for arguing at length. The phrase "purple wall of text" still makes former co-workers from EA.com think of me nearly a year later.) -- Joe -- Joe Thompson | http://www.orion-com.com/~kensey/ spam+@orion-com.com | PGP key: Finger joe-jobs@mindspring.com Yeah, it's crazy, but I just ate a giant pixy stick, and I'm excited because my new computer is coming today. -- Apreche on Slashdot ###### From: rsteiner@isis.visi.com (Richard C. Steiner) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news References: Organization: Vector Internet Services, Inc. Message-ID: User-Agent: slrn/0.9.5.4 (UNIX) Lines: 18 Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 19:43:22 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.98.98.8 X-Complaints-To: abuse@visi.com X-Trace: ruti.visi.com 1005335002 209.98.98.8 (Fri, 09 Nov 2001 13:43:22 CST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 13:43:22 CST Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!193.190.198.17.MISMATCH!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!skynet.be!skynet.be!news-out.visi.com!hermes.visi.com!ruti.visi.com!rsteiner Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94164 John Varela wrote: >On Thu, 8 Nov 2001 14:27:47, Kirk Is wrote: > >> Does anyone know when the quoting during replies to email and usenet news >> became popular? > >It goes back at least to the PCBoard BBS system and the IBM PROFS email >system. I'm not sure how far back that was: mid 80s? PROFS (OfficeVision now) doesn't automagically insert the quote prefix, though. Or at least our VM version doesn't. -- -Rich Steiner >>>---> http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner >>>---> Eden Prairie, MN Written online using slrn 0.9.5.4! The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then. ###### From: cbh@ieya.co.REMOVE_THIS.uk (Chris Hedley) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Quoting Email/news Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 20:46:29 +0000 Organization: Honest Chris' Sysadmin Emporium Message-ID: <5bfhs9.0t3.ln@teabag.cbhnet> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: teabag.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: teabag.demon.co.uk:193.237.4.110 X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 1005339606 nnrp-08:12414 NO-IDENT teabag.demon.co.uk:193.237.4.110 X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test76 (Apr 2, 2001) Originator: cbh@ieya.co.REMOVE_THIS.uk (Chris Hedley) Lines: 8 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!195.158.233.21.MISMATCH!news1.ebone.net!news.ebone.net!easynet-monga!easynet.net!dispose.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!teabag.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:94110 According to Richard C. Steiner : > PROFS (OfficeVision now) doesn't automagically insert the quote prefix, > though. Or at least our VM version doesn't. Neither did VAXmail, but it still seemed to be the standard for quoting text by the mid to late '80s, at least at my university, anyway. Chris.