[dlt713705]

Since October 1995 and the publication of RFC 1855.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1855

Communication has not been merely a matter of personal habit — it follows commonly accepted standards for exchanging information within a group. Ignoring these conventions risks your message being unread, unheard, or misunderstood.

That said, it seems possible the author is intentionally addressing a specific subgroup that has agreed upon a different set of communication rules.

[bdangubic]

Status of this Memo: This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. - MY FAVORITE kind of Memo :)

[DonHopkins]

Some other handy passive-aggressive electronic mail techniques, courtesy of Bernard Greenberg from Symbolics (BSG 4/11/84):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Greenberg

https://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/humor/flame-manual.t...

  Proposed Symbolics guidelines for mail messages
  BSG 4/11/84

>It is impermissible to use the term "EMAIL".

>It is customary to attack the someone by including his or her message, indented (unless you are using MM), and replying point by point, as someone debating someone they are watching on TV, or hearing on the radio.

>It is considered artful to append many messages on a subject, leaving only the most inflammatory lines from each, and reply to all in one swift blow. The choice of lines to support your argument can make or break your case.

>Mail should be at least a mixture of upper and lower case. Devising your own font (Devanagari, pinhead graphics, etc.) and using it in the mail is a good entertainment tactic, as is finding some way to use existing obscure fonts.

>Sending the mail from Unix is frowned upon (although this has gotten much better).

>Replying to one's own message is a rarely-exposed technique for switching positions once you have thought about something only after sending mail.

>You get 3 opportunities to advertise your Rock band, no more.

>Idiosyncratic indentations, double-spacing, capitalization, etc., while stamps of individuality, leave one an easy target for parody.

>The entire life, times, collected works, expressions, and modalities of Zippy the Pinhead are a common ground for much of the metaphor, rhetoric, and invective which pass daily through the mail. An occasional parenthetical "yow" CORRECTLY USED will endear one to the senior systems staff. So will puns and other remarks addressed directly to the point.

>Including a destination in the CC list that will cause the recipients' mailer to blow out is a good way to stifle dissent.

>When replying, it is often possible to cleverly edit the original message in such a way as to subtly alter its meaning or tone to your advantage while appearing that you are taking pains to preserve the author's intent. As a bonus, it will seem that your superior intellect is cutting through all the excess verbiage to the very heart of the matter.

>Keeping a secret "Hall Of Flame" file of people's mail indiscretions, or copying messages to private mailing lists for subsequent derision, is good fun and also a worthwhile investment in case you need to blackmail the senders later.