On Sun, Feb 22, 2004 at 12:11:13PM +0000, Paul Smith wrote: > >It can be considered rude... see the section at the end here: > > > > http://www.linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/index.php?page=netiquette > > The author of that section should probably read Immanuel Kant before > putting forward his moral statements, otherwise he may be seen as a master > oppressing the slaves, I mean, oppressing the people needing help.
[Kant is no easy reading in general as far as I can tell, even for native speakers. Lots of room for interpretation... ] However, in this particular case I see no real contradiction: If I want a problem solved by complete strangers which will receive no payment whatsoever in return for their service I will try hard to make life as easy as possible for them. So if people tell me they are annoyed by HTML, top-posting, cross- posting etc. I won't do that. Heck, I even top-post etc myself if I know this is the prefered reading-style of the person helping _me_ (but only then). This certainly could be the base of a general law. And in fact, it is. It's 'netiquette' ;-} Andre'
