Hi Folks!
I didnt want to respond to this made-out topic on posting style any
further. But, it looks like room has been left open for guess, debates
and arguments that could polarise the group. With this being my last
post on the matter of posting style I hope to bring about what Nadeem is
trying to highlight and why I am not so much in his favour especially
considering this to be Yahoo! Groups.
In early days, topics were discussed over mailing-lists (not the
promotional ones). And if I am not wrong, there was no front-end (web)
for it. Members would use email clients to read and respond posted
topics. Email clients in those days were not advanced enough to have
threads (something like Gmail's conversation or Yahoo Groups) hence
there was a necessity to maintain some etiquette.
Like Nadeem said, "you will be flamed, warned, and eventually banned" if
you post in mature list. It has nothing to do with maturity of an
individual or a group, its all about the mailing list. So, why exactly
would any1.. oops.. anyone enfource such a thing. Let's examine:
Like I said, there was no real front end to check the sequence of posts
in a mailing list and so a style became a necessity. They preferred
bottom posting and in-line posting (which I referred to as snip).
Let's take an example of some one posting a question 'Q' in a mailing
list. Members would respond with 'Rn' where n =1,2,3... number of
responses. How would this sequence look if it was top posting? --
post(last) -- R_last
..
..
post4 -- R3
post3 -- R2
post2 -- R1
post1 -- Q
Anyone on the mailing list will see the last response first and the
original post as last. Mailing list archives on web-interface will also
look messed up for readers on the net.
But, with bottom posting the sequence would look:
post1 -- Q
post2 -- R1
post3 -- R2
..
..
post(last) -- R_last
Therefore, maintaining bottom posting style was much of a necessity than
a "standard"
With web technologies growing by the day, we have communities forums and
groups that need not follow this pattern of posting, since messages are
available in the correct sequence for all to see--threads.
Here is where my point of view comes in... ours being a yahoo group
having threads since past 3+ years (since I have been in this one) I
dont find the necessity to follow bottom posting. I have used In-line
posting where ever it was required, such as my last reply to Nadeem.
Also, many "Microsoft-unfriendly" lists and forums disallow top posting
since its influence with M$. Somewhere down the line, I believe people
forgot the reason for bottom posting style and tried to enforce it as a
standard--its just my opinion and may not be true
Nadeem is against the use of Top-posting since he has confessed to the
use of email client interface -- Gmail (Nadeem, you shouldn't have
trouble with layout as Gmail does it for you.. of course, unless you are
either using Gmail's forward/Pop feature or set messages to Digest
format in Y! Groups).
Also, I dont think this groups is made to groom novice in art of posting
in mailing list. Our idea of grooming newbies should be limited to Linux
Technology. So I dont buy that argument either. Thanks to Nadeem-- he
has brought it out in open on how everyone --newbie and otherwise should
post in mailing lists.
That ends the posting story! (hopefully)
Nadeem ,
What amuses me, in your attempt to maintain post style for sake of
presentation .. you came up things like --posting style and lingo {l8r
on :)} and over looked the post you were replying to!
You see, the subject of the post has nothing to do with the content
matter --- "Must Read" -- while content is on Qmail?!!
IMO (In My Opinion), use of correct subject should have been highlighted
here above anything else. It becomes difficult for someone to search
through the post archives if subject is misleading.
Thank you all for reading!
regards
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