Re: List Etiquette

* Thus wrote Octavian Rasnita: > Hi, > > I have a very strong reason for top posting and a very strong one for not > agreeing too much bottom posting at all, and this is the fact that I am > blind and if I need to read a bottom post, I need to read again and again > the whole original message, even though most of the time I remember what was > it about, and I don't like to lose so much time to read it again so many > times. If your eyesite isn't that good, it might be wise to use a email client that is more friendly, like a mail client that highlights in differnent colors the quoted text vs the orginal text. > I have read somewhere a Netiquette rule that advice top posting (I don't > remember where, but could be on W3C site...) and the reasons for that rule > were that: > > 1. Most of the times, the members of the list remember the subject of the > [...] > > 2. People with dissabiliteies, that access the computer reading line by > [...] > > 3. Top posting is much easier to be done for most of the members of a list, > because they don't have to trim the original message very selective, but > [...] The only valid reason to top-post is to provide to the reader the response without having to scroll, but why this is bad (tm) will be argued later on in my reply. > [...] > > If I answer something like: > > "Your problem can be solved by using the following code: ..." > > Most of the users won't understand what problem was that answer for, because > on the lists we use to talk about problems all the time. > > But if I answer something like: > > "If you want to create a program for downloading and parsing a file, use the > following code:..." This is a rather unfair argument, the first example should read more like: * Somebody wrote: > How do I create a program for downloading and parsing a file?? With a program like this: ... > > Then I think that everyone will understand what is my answer for, and they > don't need to read again the original message, because they even might > remember that message. So If I had top posted, and you dont remember what exactly why I would be writing the paragraph, you would have to scroll down 4 pages and re-read/find out what context I am writing this paragraph for. I can't find much info on why top-posting is good, but I did find lots that suggested top-posting isn't well accepted, it stems mostly from usenet behaviours: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote2.html http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/brox.html http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html Curt -- The above comments may offend you. flame at will.