Re: [LAU] Top Posting [Was: Linux compatible keybord controller?]

From: Q <lists@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Thu Jan 02 2014 - 16:07:15 EET

On 02/01/14 13:32, Robin Gareus wrote:
> Certainly not. This is a publicly archived email list.
>
> Please do not top-post on any linux audio email-lists. Reply inline,
> feel free to remove parts from the message that are irrelevant for your
> reply and leave just enough to provide context, or simply add your reply
> at the bottom.
>
> Not only are there are users who do read the lists by daily digest but
> it also really messes up the the archive and is generally confusing:
>
> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
> A: Top-posting.
> Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Top-posting]
>
> The email-archive serves as knowledge database and I think you will
> agree that a properly formatted thread is much easier to read top to
> bottom. It's bad netiquette to top-post on a public email list.
>
> yours truly,
> robin

I've never encountered bottom-posting outside of Linux mailing lists
(admittedly I'm not on any non-Linux mailing lists). Nobody has done it
in any place that I've worked, or at any other organisation that I've
communicated with by email, either privately or at work.

It would be ludicrous to have to scroll through months, maybe even
years, of earlier messages (which need to be there for context, to refer
to WHEN required) to get to what is the most important bit of
information -- the latest bit, the thing that the person is saying now
in response to the previous message.

IF context is needed, then you scroll down and further down if you need
more. But how often is it necessary to read the context each and every
message? Why this insistence on the maximum amount of effort -- lots and
lots of scrolling -- just to read a reply?

It's often not worth the effort of reading a lot of replies on the list
due to having to scroll past loads of earlier messages. It's
bottom-posting that's confusing and that manufactured example of why
top-posting is supposedly confusing is begging the question.

I know Julien always said that bottom-posting was an unpleasant
experience on a braille display.

It seems to me that the only problem is that bottom-posting clashes with
how people actually write messages in every other sphere of life -- it
(bottom-posting) is an outdated practice that needs to die and allow
mailing lists to move with the times.

Q

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Received on Thu Jan 2 16:15:03 2014

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