Re: [Evolution] Top-posting in Evolution

[Greg Vickers <g vickers qut edu au>]

Hi all,

Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-05-29 at 00:08 -0400, Matthew Barnes wrote:
> > On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 18:09 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> > > Given that top-posting is frowned on by many list users, is it not
> > > ironic that Evolution encourages it? I can't believe this hasn't been
> > > raised before, but I can't find any previous discussion of it, just
> > > plenty of complaints about top-posters.
> > On the contrary, we've gone round and round about this in one bug after
> > the other.  I personally think it's rather silly, but users seem quite
> > passionate about where the cursor should go.
>
> I don't know what your personal preference is, but if like me you find
> yourself first deleting the extra line Evo introduces at the top, and
> then scrolling to the bottom for *every single reply you type* all I can
> say is that it quickly becomes very irritating indeed.
>
> > Current consensus is that since many bottom posters still like to place
> > a greeting at the top, we leave the cursor at the top.  Also, placing
> > the cursor at the top encourages bottom posters to use selective quoting
> > rather than quoting the sender's entire email (or mailing list digest,
> > as the case may be).
>
> Very unconvincing I'm afraid. In my experience bottom posters are
> already more likely to quote selectively. What about encouraging the
> top-posters to do it as well, given that so few of them seem to do it?

For what it's worth, I top post the "Hi (all/fred/others)", then go on 
to selectively quote.  If I'm feeling exceptionally lazy or have had a 
bad day, or am replying in kind to a top poster, I'll just top post 
(with vengeance!)

> > The initial cursor position is not going to change people's habits.  Top
> > posters will continue to top post and bottom posters will continue to
> > grumble no matter what we do.
>
> On the contrary. IMHO placing the cursor at the bottom is quite likely
> to change at least some people's habits. However this is beside the
> point. I'm not trying to make everyone to do it my way, which is why I'm
> proposing to make it an option. It would seem on the surface to be an
> extremely trivial feature to add.

Thunderbird gives three (!) options, 1) reply above quote, 2) reply 
under quote or, 3) select the quote.  Why are these or a similar option 
not available in Evolution?

Cheers,
--
Greg Vickers
Phone: +61 7 3138 6902
IT Security Engineer & Project Manager
Queensland University of Technology, CRICOS No. 00213J