Jim Hartley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] offered:
> I wouldn't even call this a religious issue. It's more an issue of > convenience. It is a ROYAL PITA to go into preferences to change between > two successive replies, and even more so to REMEMBER which way you have > it set and whether you NEED to change it for a particular reply (I am > using the Seamonkey mail client). Even if I tried to get it right I'd > screw up some replies. So since there are some instances where I really > have to top post, everybody gets top posted. Well, JUST ABOUT everybody! In small part, that's an issue of your choice of mail client. In slightly larger part, it's an issue of how you choose to configure it. Both of those are greatly overshadowed by the overwhelming contributor, which is the degree (or lack) of courtesy that is applied when responding. > And please don't suggest that some other mail client (your favorite, of > course) makes it easier to switch so you can do some top and some bottom > posting. Changing mail clients ***IS*** a religious issue :-) Somebody please post an example of a mailing list where they actually WANT members to quote every last line, including sigs and attached administrivia, of an entire bloody thread, that may have lasted for days or weeks and now be running to hundreds or thousands of lines... really. I seriously don't believe anybody who asserts that there's such a list. If there is, it must be populated by fools. Virtually every list I've ever met has asked for participants to EDIT what they quote. If your mail client makes it especially difficult to be courteous - meaning, in e-mail list context, to _E D I T_ your posts and to intersperse your comments between the _judiciously_ quoted bits of the earlier message to which you are specifically replying - then, changing mail clients is the obvious answer. If, on the other hand, the lack of courtesy is a simple "don't give a f*** for anybody" attitude and is not affected by the user interface of the mail client... then it's the attitude that needs changing. Not making a charge, here, just laying out the usual reasons for this disagreement. Basically, people who bottom-post tend to at least _notice_ that they've got an entire lengthy message (often including tag lines, legalese, and other bumpf), so they are a bit more likely to trim out all but the necessary text about the specific points they are replying to. People who top-post tend to jump in and start jabbering (or worse, insert a "me too" at the top of 4000 lines...) without even paying attention to just how much crud extends below. This is not to say that they all "just don't care".... but it's the preferred method of those who "just don't care". People who intersperse are usually the most conscientious. The incoming message might be 100 paragraphs, but when they reply, only two or three paragraphs of the original message are quoted. The rest is trimmed, or was never even brought in. Now then.... if you are using a mail client like KMail, you just read a message, highlight a paragraph or a few choice words and type "l". The selected paragraph is quoted in a new reply message that is addressed to the mailing list, and you just start typing, with no worries about having quoted 6700 lines and three weeks of message thread, complete with signatures, tag-lines and that stupid legalese (like our company server will now attach to the bottom of this message). Obviously if you even CAN leave a thousand-line thread un-edited in a reply, it's only possible because other people have been equally inconsiderate. Otherwise the message could not have grown so long. DISCLAIMER: "You" is used in the generic sense, in the foregoing message, and does not refer directly to a specific person, not even the respondent... probably... By the way, one of the definitions of courtesy is to deliberately take on a minor inconvenience in order to make life (or the current situation) more convenient for others. Kevin (climbing down off soap-box) The information contained in this electronic mail transmission may be privileged and confidential, and therefore, protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to this message and deleting it from your computer without copying or disclosing it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
