Re: [Evolution] Evaluating Evolution- some basic questions

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> Interesting, I couldn't disagree with you more.  Perhaps our industries
> differ, but in my company's industry (Architectural and Engineering
> Services) it is sometimes very important from both an administrative
> and legal standpoint to be able to document an entire conversation.
> Being able to prove that Bob the Client told Dave the Engineer to
> modify the spec for Project Y to include items A, B, and C on [date] at
> [time] as well as showing the conversational context that led to and
> followed that communication is vital to us.  I wouldn't have the
> quoting style any other way.  I understand that it eats storage space
> and bandwidth but if a single e-mail is deleted from that conversation (doing it the other way)
> it can cast doubt on the entire process.  So that single, final mail with every
> back and forth message is vital.  Or several of them if the conversation spans multiple subject threads.  

So you trust, in a legal context, that people haven't edited the
previous messages that you have dutifully copied in each and every
email??  If you don't, and you have to go back to the original emails to
verify the content, then what's the point in copying them each and every
time?

No, top posting leaving all the previous emails intact is purely because
people (a) don't know that they should delete extraneous text, or (b)
they are too lazy, or (c) they *think* it helps provide context.  None
of which, in my view, or valid reasons.  Use threading, it makes things
much easier.

P.