2018-07-25 18:57 GMT+02:00, Jim DeLaHunt <[email protected]>: > On 2018-07-25 08:11, Carl Zwanzig wrote: > > > I'm not the list owner nor one of the ffmpeg developers, just a > long-time Internet user... > > I also am not the list owner, nor one of the ffmpeg developers, either. > I appreciate the effort which you, Carl, and the core developers, put > into replying to queries on this list. But I have some advice for you > and them. > > On 2018-07-25 08:11, Carl Zwanzig wrote: >> It's long-standing practice that this list asks a few things of >> members- one is that members don't "top post" their replies. This >> means to put your comments _below_ those you're commenting on- >> >> what someoene else said >> my reply >> >> not- >> my reply >> what someone else said >> >> (Removing extraneous lines to trim the message is also helpful.) > > It's great that you have explained this time what you mean by "top > posting". This is what it takes to make it clear to new list participants. > > But that's not how I see frequent participants and core developers > usually communicate the "do not top post" message. The most common way I > see this communicated to new list participants is as a cryptic > afterthought tacked on to another answer. > > e.g. > > ... are the maximum bitrate reported by the stream. > > > > Please do not top-post here, .... > > or: > > ...you want into ffmpeg; that's what I would do. > > > > (please don't top-post on this list) > > My personal experience getting this rebuke is that a) it was not at all > clear what they meant by "top posting", b) it was not clear that "top > posting" is a phrase which has meaning on the Net at large, and that I > could search for, and c) it didn't tell me what I _should_ do. > > > A further explanation of "top posting" will be found in google or > your favorite search engine . > > Be wary of sending people to search. You have no control over what they > will find. And the top response I get from my search, > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style>, is long and descriptive.
Which is good! > It does not send a strong message of "use excerpting and bottom posting". > > What would be better, I believe, is a slightly clearer message, which > points to a URL with fuller instructions. For instance, try this: > > > In your message, you "top-posted" your reply. In this list we want > you to "excerpt and bottom-post" instead. See > > > <https://ffmpeg.org/mailing-list-faq.html#What-is-top_002dposting_003f-1> > for an explanation. Thank you! > > Maybe frequent responders to this list might want to put this text into > a personal FAQ file, and then copy it and paste it into your replies > when needed. No, I don't want to maintain a personal FAQ file, and footers are highly discouraged here, especially long ones such as yours. > That will save you from having to look up the URL every > time you want to correct someone. > > Does everyone know that the FFMpeg website already has this URL, and the > beginnings of an explanation? There is an fragment, with an example, at > <https://ffmpeg.org/mailing-list-faq.html#What-is-top_002dposting_003f-1>. > > I can think of a lot of ways to improve that text. You can rewrite it to > centre on what you _want_, not what you _don't_ want. You can improve > the example: write an excerpt and put it in the answer, instead of > linking to an message in the archives. You can add a companion negative > example, to make it clear how a participant can go from the wrong way to > the right way. So instead of trying to reproduce issues, understanding them, opening bug reports or fix issues right away or giving common work-arounds you suggest to explain top-posting, something that the first Google hit explains very well? I don't think this is a smart suggestion. Carl Eugen _______________________________________________ ffmpeg-user mailing list [email protected] http://ffmpeg.org/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-user To unsubscribe, visit link above, or email [email protected] with subject "unsubscribe".
