Baslinux mailing list

[Lee Forrest <lforrestster AT gmail.com>]

David,

On Fri, Dec 22, 2006 at 05:07:42PM -0800, David Moberg wrote:
[delete]
> 
> I try to avoid top posting, but I don't really care if you top post
> when you reply to the list. Others may find it annoying. I don't think
> that this list has had very many top-posters in three years.

On many lists, "top posting" will get you 86'd. Or simply shunned.

"Top posting" is fine for real-time, unimportant, conversations. 
But this is mailing list devoted to a highly technical subject,
not a "chat room".

If you are tuning into a thread late, you often have to search
the article below to figure out just what the "top poster" is
talking about. And it may not be clear even then.

Because they haven't placed their response directly under what
they are responding to and haven't trimmed irrelevant parts away.

So you search back through the thread and encounter even more
confusing top posts.

The same goes, only more so, for searches in the archives.

Putting responses above what is being responded to makes no
sense at all. That's not how written English works. Down
the page indicates forward movement in time. 

"Top posting" is a lazy, inconsiderate, and sloppy practice.

Good etiquette on a forum like this must include taking the time
to properly format responses in a way that facilitates clarity of
communication for people tuning into the thread late and future
searches in the archives.

Steven sets an excellent example.

> I am trying to appropriately cut posts that I reply to, but sometimes
> it is difficult to decide what to keep and what to cut.

True. 

[delete]

I generally find "top posting" so frustrating that I simply
ignore posts from people who do it chronically. And if It occurs
in a thread in the archives, I sigh and resign myself to reading
it from the very beginning, because if I don't, I'll end up
getting confused.

Lee

-- 
Basic Linux: Small is Beautiful
http://www.basiclinux.com.ru