Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Quoting styles

[Holly Bostick]

Dale schreef:
> Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
>>
>> Sometimes this 'educating' may sound much harsher than ment - but
>> don't forget, that for a lot of people on this (or every public)
>> mailing list english is only the second or third language - and
>> hitting the right 'tone' is not easy, if you are not a native
>> speaker.
>>
>
> Thanks, I needed that.  Can I assume english is not your native
> language?  The writing was fine, the name gave it away though.

Tip: the name doesn't give it away, the email address (in combination
with the name) does.

(Sorry to use you as an example, Volker, but you're a good one for this).

Dale, when reading mail in Mozilla (which of course I know you're
doing), you might notice in the window where the mail content actually
appears, next to the word "Subject" in the bar above the text of the
mail, there's a little white box with a plus sign in it.

That bar, for this mail, probably says:

"Subject: blah blah blah    _Holly Bostick_ (as a link, that if you
click it, will open up a compsition window addressed to me, so you can
curse my name or tell me what a bi-atch I am, or whatever :-) ).

The thing is, the designers of this mail program figure you don't
necessarily want more information than that right at the outset; you
most likely want to read the mail-- and that is most likely true.

But you can easily get more information (though still simplified, unless
you change certain other settings), by clicking that little white box
next to the word "Subject".

If you do so, the bar containing the *mail header* will be expanded
(taking up some of the display room of the mail itself, which is why
it's normally not expanded) and you will be able to see the email
address of the sender (as well as some other information. There is even
more information contained in the headers, but these are 'Normal'
headers; to see all the information, you would have to display "Full"
headers, which is not necessary atm).

So, getting back to Volker, yes, he has a very German name-- but anybody
can have a very German name, if they're of German descent.

But if you select a mail from him, and click that little white plus
sign, you'll see that his email address is

volker.armin.hemmann@××××××××××××.de

I'm sure you know that ".de" means Germany, just as the ".nl" at the end
of my email address indicates that I'm in The Netherlands.

A guy with a German name, posting from Germany-- that's proof enough
for me that Volker is in fact a native German, which of course means
that his native language would be German. You'd never know it to talk to
him on the list, though :-) .

Anyway, this doesn't always work (for example, I'd never be able to
guess where you're living from your email address, with its anonymous
".net" suffix), but it's a good place to start.

Holly

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