> I can't understand why anyone thought it was a good idea to attach the previous message to the bottom. Most people just accept this as the way email is and never question how unbelievably stupid it is.
In addition to the obvious idiocy of sending someone a copy of what they just sent you ... I think it's funny to realize how this behaviour actually has quadratic space and bandwidth complexity:
If a thread is 10 message long, you have to store and transmit the data of 55 messages.
If a thread is 100 message long, you have to store and transmit the data of 5050 messages.
Or in general, if a thread is n message long, you have to store and transmit the data of n*(n+1)/2 messages.
And with Outlook, if you have a large TO or CC field that gets included at the top of the quoted message. Some dopes started reply-all chain at work a year or two back. After 3 or 4 messages it was a several MB message being sent to 1000 people.
In addition to the obvious idiocy of sending someone a copy of what they just sent you ... I think it's funny to realize how this behaviour actually has quadratic space and bandwidth complexity:
If a thread is 10 message long, you have to store and transmit the data of 55 messages.
If a thread is 100 message long, you have to store and transmit the data of 5050 messages.
Or in general, if a thread is n message long, you have to store and transmit the data of n*(n+1)/2 messages.