Steven, As Aneurin has pointed out, you seem to have responded to the wrong thread, that doesn't relieve the confusion for those of us who use a list reader which threads correctly. And that is a part of what you are complaining about. I expect that you've reacted emotionally, and that is human and normal. I want to state a few more things and I will do that inline. It's going to sound patronizing but I have the grey hair to attempt that.
[...] >> >> >> > This is becoming ridiculous now. You are just replying and going to >> > extremes just because you can. >> > This wording is not likely to avoid an emotional reaction from the person you're trying to reply to and, thus, may be counterproductive for the discussion. It also has the potential to irritate someone if you include it in a reply to the wrong thread. I'm not even sure why this section got in your reply to Aneurin's post except you were somehow trying to answer the questions which I think were meant as rhetorical. [...] >> > >> > I look forward to discussing other topics with you but for now this >> > one is at end. I hope you don't really believe that a line like that will be effective in stopping an off topic thread. Many times, these days, even a "plonk" won't be effective in keeping you from seeing things you don't want to see from some posters. In my opinion, it is best to ignore a lot of other posters advice, unless it is clearly incorrect, and let the OP decide what information they want from the discussion. Naturally, post to correct incorrect or dangerous advice. [...] > > There are currently other posters arguing about top-posting, > bottom-posting and inline-posting. With some saying they will do what they > want regardless. This is nuts! > Nuts, perhaps. However, it happens in list after list and from time to time. Some posters come here for a "social" exercise and probably look on the list as some kind of slow IRC, perhaps even as a place to try and show they are smarter than others. A lot of the really knowledgeable posters who previously hung out here no longer post, I don't know if they still lurk. [..] > > With all the off topic posts, inconsistent posting and arguments, not > discussions, the mailing list seems chaotic and this does not encourage > people to participate and therefore does not encourage people to use > Debian. > Agreed. However, not every poster who is here to try and help others is interested in encouraging more people to use Debian. Personally, I don't care who chooses to use Debian. I will try to help those who do. > > Some posters do not fully read the posting they are replying and from > their posts do not give their own post much thought either. > I couldn't agree more. [...] > > I also give references so that people can go look up and read the material > for themselves. > [...] > > I think I will start a few new threads and see how it goes. Maybe "Staying > on topic" and "Top vs Bottom posting". > Well, those posts are only likely to add noise to the mailing list as topics like that usually do. You state you give references when you post but it did not appear to me that you did so in the above mentioned posts. Because the topics come up so often, there would have been lots of references in the archives that you could have quoted or linked to. You didn't even mention the most basic reference, like the code of conduct on mailing lists at lists.debian.org. I think I understand your good intentions but posts like yours often act as trolls and have very little chance of changing behaviour. Submitted for your possible interest, not meant as any kind of criticism of you personally, in the hope that lurkers can learn from reading and understanding. If we can leave our egos out of discussions, the discussions benefit but it is hard for humans to do that as our emotions are affected by our daily lives, our perceptions, even our local connotations of the words used. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
