[arch-general] Top Posting Revisited

[Jude DaShiell]

On Fri, 16 Dec 2011, Ralf Mardorf wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: arch-general-bounces at archlinux.org on behalf of Calvin Morrison
> Sent: Fri 12/16/2011 04:21
> To: General Discussion about Arch Linux
> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Top Posting Revisited
>  
> On 15 December 2011 22:07, Sander Jansen <s.jansen at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 8:17 PM, gt <codered12 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hello folks, i'll probably get flamed for reviving a very controversial,
> > > yet consistently brought up topic.
> > >
> > > I have seen a similar thread last year, and every other day, someone
> > > points out to someone that top posting is bad.
> > >
> > > I was off the list for a while, and now when i came back, the story is
> > > still the same.
> > >
> > > I know top posting is bad, and i too sometimes preach people to avoid
> > > it. But from what i've seen, most of the times, people don't bother, or
> > > simply don't know what's wrong.
> > >
> > > Instead of having top-posting related mails in every thread, there
> > > should be a better way out.
> > >
> > > I suggest all of the top-posting haters should including one of these
> > > links or similar in their signatures.
> > >
> > > http://idallen.com/topposting.html
> > >
> > > http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html
> > >
> > > Also, we can have a forum and mailing list etiquette drive for a few
> > > days, with mention in the arch linux news, the mailing list, and setting
> > > it as the topic in the irc channel also.
> > >
> > > I know this is probably overkill, but it'll probably inform a lot more
> > > people about these issues than some stray posts in every other thread.
> > >
> > > PS: Since arch is always ahead of the other distros in adopting new
> > > stuff and bringing about change, let's be the first ones to spread some
> > > netiquette.
> >
> > Perhaps you could do something more useful with your time. For
> > example, you could write chromium browser plugin that forces
> > bottom-posting in gmail...
> >
> 
> Yeah lets all just spam fuck gmail devs because they won't add a automatic
> bottom posting feature.
> 
> Seriously...
> 
> +++
> 
> Since I'm uncertain how to handle incoming emails in the future I still use my providers M$ thingy. I prefer bottom posting and plain text, but not only my provider's M$ thingy doesn't mark the original message with signs for the quote and there's no option to use plain text. Today it's very common to write HTML and to answer above the original message.
> 
> This odd behaviour might have one advantage. People doing top posting perhaps read the complete mail, before they reply, while answering under the quotes very often means reading a sentence, then  to answer, reading the next sentence and to answer this etc., hence the context could get lost, this could lead to misconceptions and those could lead to flame wars.
> 
> I'm from the Ruhrgebiet, here we don't care much about netiquette. Do we really need rules and rules and rules?
> 
> +1 for bottom posting but I'm completely against instructing people not to post as it's common on business correspondence.
> 
> We are the freaks. Today nearly everybody is using HTML and top posting at least in Germany is what averaged people do.
> 
> - Ralf
> 
The creators of the original email protocol could have if they chose put 
together an rfc on top posting and writers of email programs could have 
written software in such a way that top posting became impossible.  None 
of that happened to the best of my knowledge.  Why?  Also, what does the 
future of email composition software hold on all operating system 
platforms?  Personally, I wouldn't mind having a configuration setting in 
the software which would allow people to choose top posting or bottom 
posting of email messages as a transitional step, but I don't see that 
happening either.  I use Linux when I can and Windows when I must and 
usually alpine on Linux and either outlook on windows for now.  When my 
mac was working I used to use apple mail too.  Probably the best thing to 
do is get good email composition software out the door  for cli and gui 
interfaces that either allows a choice between top and bottom posting or 
just allows bottom posting and recommend the use of that software to 
people.  I don't have a problem with bottom posting but do have a problem 
of thinking to do it when sending email especially when under stressful 
situations and I'm sure I'm not alone in this situation either.

> 

---------------------------------------------------------------- Jude 
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