[arch-general] top posting

[Scott]

Ok, to be serious for a minute, judging from a few posts, not everyone
understands, so just to clarify for newcomers, or for anyone who doesn't
have English as their first language.  (Though many of the latter write
better than we native speakers, but that's another thread.) :)

You old timers who know all this can skip the rest, it's a rehash of
some common netiquette. 



Top posting is posting your response above the post you are answering. 

For example:

I write:
I think Arch is great.

Someone responds by posting above it, so it looks like:

Yeah, you're right.

>I think Arch is great

(that's assuming the responder's email handles quoting.)

One thing that can confuse people is that this is often the norm in
business correspondence. It might even be preferable, if for example,
the boss responds above a long detailed proposal, Yes, do it. 

Whether or not that's really the best way, it is pretty accepted in
business.  You can't even blame MS mailers, since most mailers do start
at the top of an email by default, including mutt.  This also makes
sense.  You can read and respond.

On technical mailing lists, the preferred method is almost always what's
called in line posting.  I write.

I think Arch is great.

I like the fact that they have a small base install

You respond

>I think Arch is great.

Yes, I do too.

>I like the fact that they have a small base install.

I feel the same way, though sometimes, I miss having X installed and
configured upon installation.  


In other words, you reply to point A below point A and point B below
point B, so it imitates a spoken conversation. 

Two other points often overlooked by newcomers are trimming and thread
hijacking.  Trimming means to snip unneeded parts of an email.  For
example, if I write 10 lines explaining my work situation, but only the
last two lines actually have my question, you snip the first 8 lines.
This way, other people following the thread don't have to scroll through
the entire story to see the question. 

Thread hijacking is when you take a thread, for example, this one, then
just change the subject line to start a new thread.  MS email clients
will make it look like a new thread, but many other clients pay
attention to the actual headers, and will include your new thread as
part of the old one.  As many people won't even notice that, it's
another common mistake.

So, just thought I'd clarify these three for folks who aren't aware of
them, and folks who might not have realized that many of us were being
silly, deliberately top posting while complaining about it. 

Hopefully this is of use to some and those who already know it heeded
the warning at the beginning and didn't read it.  :)





-- 
Scott Robbins
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