[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk-Users List Etiquette

[Troy Settle]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com 
> [mailto:asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Chris Lee
> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 6:34 AM
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk-Users List Etiquette
> 
> Kevin Walsh wrote:
> > Steven Critchfield [critch at basesys.com] wrote:
> > 
> >>You forgot to add in how awful it is when people  post 
> using HTML and
> >>then override font sizes or assume blue is an appropriate 
> font color for
> >>their message. 
> >>
> >>While I know some people don't like it when I turn my 
> attention to them,
> >>if it takes me even one more button press to be able to 
> read your mail,
> >>it isn't likely to be interesting to me to even bother 
> helping you with
> >>your problem. 
> >>
> >>Since the majority of unix users understand how each of us tweak our
> >>environment to be the most productive for us, we don't like 
> it when you
> >>take liberties with our settings.
> >>
> > 
> > He also forgot to mention how awful it is when people 
> lazily top-post
> > instead of taking the time to format their followups correctly.
> > This is especially true when trying to follow a thread found in the
> > archives.
> > 
> > I fully agree with your anti-HTML comments, by the way.
> > 
> I think you will find that about half the people out there 
> disagree with 
> this sentiment (a guess based on the number of top and bottom 
> posters I 
> have seen) so no matter how often you ask it is not likely to change 
> things much.
> Top posting is what a lot of people are very comfortable with.
> It also has the advantage in lists that when you step through 
> a thread 
> the answer to the last item is ready for you to read.
> So If you bottom post you make life harder for the thread 
> reader but if 
> you top post you make life harder for those that get a long 
> mail out of 
> the archives.Who should we favor?
> Don't ask why I am bottom posting, I have no good reason, it just so 
> happens that I am.
> 
> I don't like HTML either but a lot of people don't know they 
> can switch 
> it off or that it even exists (its a word processor isn't it?).
> Getting offended by these personal preferences just leads to that 
> etiquette problem, the god ol flame war. Or at least heated 
> debate that 
> will never be won with so many advocates for each side, that 
> the lists 
> become quite full of top/bottom html/text arguments.
> 
> Please don't bring these subjects into things it just makes 
> people with 
> other views upset.

I'm quite content to post at the top, bottom, or inline.  It really just
depends on the nature of the message I'm replying to, the subject, context,
and format of earlier messages in the thread.

However, my preference is for top posting.  The reason, is that in order to
read my message here, you had to scroll through ~70 lines of previous
discussion.  Stuff that you've /already/ read since you've been following
this thread.

Oh!  Wait, you found this in an archive, so you /want/ to have the thread
fully quoted so you don't have to go hunting down the references.  Good,
that's why I didn't trim this post.

Oh, wait, the guys that are following this thread as it's being discussed
would prefer that I trim out the stuff up there, in which case, I would be
neither top posting, nor bottom posting.  This message would be a post unto
itself that wouldn't have any quoted material at all.  Afterall, you've
already read the referenced material.

So, the bottom line is that top-posters are lazy?  I say yes, we are.  We
don't want to have to scroll through pages of quoted material just to get to
the new stuff.

I say that the bottom posters are lazy.  They want a bottom post so that
they enter into a thread 12 messages later, and not have to read the thread
'backwards.'  Read your mail to begin with, and you wouldn't have this
problem, and you would actually start to appreciate the top posters, because
they're making it so you don't have to scroll through ~70 lines of quoted
material to get to the new stuff.

--
  Troy Settle
  Pulaski Networks
  http://www.psknet.com
  866.477.5638