-Original Message-
From: TG [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 11:44 AM
To: php-general@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP] Top/bottom posting holy war *cringe* (was: New to
PHP)
I concede only that the PHP list has a requested style (bottom
posting). I
disagree on it's usefulness OVER top posting.
I'm perfectly able to read top or bottom posted messages with nearly
equal
fluidity. I find top posting to be more fluid and useful. I've never
quite sure why this becomes a holy war. Why can't some people do it
one
way and others do it the other way? It's nice when everyone does it
the
same way, but with the indenting/prefixing lines of replies, it's easy
enough to see what the last message was that the current top or bottom
posted reply goes to.
Because this is such a hot button issue, I cringed when I saw it
brought up
as a response to a new member saying Hi and looking for PHP coding
recommendations because it always leads to these discussions. No good
can
come of even discussing it or bringing it up except to show people who
aren't aware, that there IS a choice in the matter.
So.. you concede to ignore the requested style, then?
As for near-equal fluidity.. I don't believe you. Plainly and simply, I
do not believe your claim. That is, of course, unless you've been
reading bottom-to-top since you were a child in some bizarre psychology
experiment placed on your shoulders by your parents...
It boils down to this: if you've been participating in the discussion
adamantly, then yes--top posting probably won't throw you off. However,
for people who are jumping in the middle (perhaps they saw a keyword
related to something they are working on, or they just joined the list,
etc.) it can become quite confusing. This is a mailing list. On top of
that (no pun intended), it is a public mailing list. As such, there will
be many individuals reading conversations without having been around for
the start of them.
More confusing still is the some do it this way, some do it that way
proposal you have issued. When messages are replied to using both
conventions, the flow of the conversation looks like a seismic gauge
during an earthquake.
Todd Boyd
Web Programmer
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