Well, "modern" technology does this too; Markdown quoting on many sites works exactly like that - the only difference is that mailing lists prefer not prettifyi

Well, "modern" technology does this too; Markdown quoting on many sites works exactly like that - the only difference is that mailing lists prefer not prettifying messages. This email would look like this if copied directly to Reddit (and GitHub): https://i.imgur.com/eXODVHb.png https://i.imgur.com/eXODVHb.png (which also reminds me of how Tumblr's reblogs look: https://i.imgur.com/e6UR8bn.png https://i.imgur.com/e6UR8bn.png)