On 13-Feb-10 08:52, Programmer In Training wrote:
On 02/13/10 08:33, Troll/Idiot wrote:
We're not talking about books, but rather posts on an email list.
<snip>
Until now I've stayed out of this discussion because I feel I've already
made my views known, but your choice in inviting people to engage in ad
hominem attacks[0] really rubbed me wrong.
Actually, I didn't invite people to engage in ad hominem attacks. I
remarked that it seemed to be common practice for some people. I hope
we agree that it is unacceptable.
Which, when threaded properly or listed in the archives, reads like a
book (or anything else you read from the top to the bottom, not the
reverse). Even email clients (and web based providers aside from GMail)
by default list the newest email at the bottom of the list and only with
a change in configuration is this behavior any different.
Thunderbird (my preferred email client) as well as several other sane
mail readers (read as: ones that support proper message threading), when
you select threading, always put the latest email /below/ the previous
one in the thread (with indentation to better show relationship). That's
also how it works in the list archives, which most people on this list
are concerned about.
And whether it be posts on an email list or a book, people read from TOP
to BOTTOM. Not BOTTOM to TOP. If I join a mailing list and the first
mail I receive is top posted (without proper snipping below) I have to
read everything below that response BEFORE I have to scroll back to the
TOP to read that response for it to make /any/ sense. That is what is at
issue here. For someone coming in at the middle of a discussion, or
reading this from the archives online, responses need to be properly
interleaved (or in this case at the bottom since I'm only responding to
one of your points and ignoring the rest) to make the most logical sense
without forcing J. Random Stranger to hunt through that or previous
documents to try and make sense of what is going on.
In that regard, top-posting becomes a HURDLE and HINDRANCE rather then
being at all helpful to anyone but the person who was too lazy to move
his cursor around the page before answering.
Top-posting: really bad
bottom-posting: still bad, but not as bad as top-posting and generally
only horrible without proper snipping.
Interleaved responses: ideal and best
Well, that's a valid opinion.
Troll/Idiot
Have a nice day. Respect others' opinions.
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