In news:[email protected],
M. Fioretti <[email protected]> typed:
Keith wrote:
why some dislike top posting. If I am following a long thread the
last thing I want to do is page down over the information I have
read before.
One of the reasons for bottom posting (on a support mailing list like
this, at least) is that half the reason it exists is for people who
will read it weeks or months in the future. That is to build over time
archives where as many pages as possible are ordered, understandable,
stand-alone tips (as in "first the description of the problem, then
the solution). Consistent bottom posting makes the archives more
useful for people looking for solutions via search engines, which in
turn decreases the number of questions to the list (which is
particularly important for lists like this, which allow messages from
non-members).
There are other reasons, but since I already answered to this question
on this list, I'll just post the link:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=169271
and conclude with two comments:
#1 most of the flames about top or bottom posting comes from people in
either category who do NOT trim the original message before
replying. Do that, and almost nobody will bother if you top post or
the opposite. This is explained better in the link above
#2 the official guidelines of this mailing list recommend (albeit
implicitly) bottom posting. I have explained this here:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=169373
As long as that's the case, you may ask that somebody is expelled
for top posting, but not the opposite, because only the first
practice is against the guidelines of this list. If moderators were
really strict, theoretically you couldn't even _complain_ about
bottom posters, because they're simply following the rules. I am not
saying that top posting is a reason to expel anyone, of course, just
describing the current situation. As long as that's the rule,
whenever a flamewar starts here on this list, the ones who are on
the "wrong" side (guidelines-wise) are the top posters.
In practice the best way, if not the only one, to not waste time on
this here is that everybody consistently follows tip #1 above.
Marco
Not trimmed because IMO the information is worth repeating in its entirety.
I whole heartedly agree with you with a very minor exception. Normally I
will follow whatever method has aleady been used whenever I am not the first
response to a query. If the preceding poster top posted, then I'll often top
post. If bottom posted, then I'll bottom post. If trimmed and inlined, I'll
try to follow that, too. It just makes sense to maintain the process the
thread initiated rather than mix posting styles and actually create
difficulties.
That said, otherwise I'll post per any guidelines, RFC, FYI, etc. that
may exist. It's such a minor thing IMO that it's no trouble to follow given
guidelines. If one is too rushed to bother with that, I would prefer not to
hear from them anyway as they've given their response way too little
consideration.
Regards,
Twayne`
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