boblq([EMAIL PROTECTED])@Fri, Jun 23, 2006 at 10:59:19AM -0700: > On Friday 23 June 2006 10:50 am, Nicholas Wheeler wrote: > > If your mail client doesn't make it easy for you to read top or > > bottom posting mails, so easy that in fact, you've never cared > > if someone top or bottom posted, and you have to whine and > > complain about it -- definitely get a new mail client. > > Maybe just write a filter that converts each message to the > desired format. >
I accidentally discovered a mutt feature. the "S" command will Skip the quoted text. So for bottom posts, the "I hate to scroll down" argument becomes a non-issue. Although, I do think that quoted text should all be part of the current point being made (i.e.: it should be left in the e-mail because it is supposed to be read again). In the end, the issue is whether a poster is the kind of person who understands that presenting ideas in writing is a discipline that entails choice of vocabulary, format, an understanding of how the medium affects communication and comprehension, and a certain degree of respect for the sensibilities of the reader, whom you hoped to influence with those ideas in the first place. Top posting generally tells me that the poster didn't value the audience, but was more concerned with the more selfish aim of "just being heard". My children sometimes raise their voices sometimes in order to be heard. Is it appropriate? Well, sometimes, but it usually isn't. It's usually just that waiting and being polite is so much less fun and satisfying than having the whole family listen to him/her right now, simply because they opened the mouth. Similarly, top posting usually strikes me as a rather cathartic splattering of thoughts without the discipline to deliver your message with thought and consideration for the reader. The idea was put forth that it's the reader's fault/problem if they don't have a mail client that makes it easier to deal with the out-of-order presentation of text, that may or may not even be relevant. I just don't see it. That amounts to placing the responsibility for the clarity of the communication on the reader, rather than on the composer of the e-mail. Having understood that in a "backwards" fashion will lead to letter composition in a backwards fashion, too. Please show the courtesy of *composing* your e-mail messages, especially those that go to a large group as this one is. Composition doesn't happen automatically simply because the "compose" button is clicked. Of course, if the e-mail is actually composed as a whole, then I doubt it would be a big issue what line or position in the letter happened to hold your own words. Wade Curry -- KPLUG-List@kernel-panic.org http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
