There is one thing more irritating than top posting. People who rant about it.
On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 7:16 AM, NoOp <gl...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > For those that continue to insist on top posting on the LO lists: please > consider bottom posting with interspersed replies. > > I realiz(s)e that the existing: > http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/ > doesn't specifically clarify anything with regards to top/bottom > posting. However at the bottom of each mail on this list is a link to: > http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > That page doesn't help much either, but it /does/ include a link to: > http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html > which includes this bit: > http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote2.html#ss2.3 > > <quote> > 2.3 Why should I place my response below the quoted text? > > Usually, the reading-flow is from left to right and from top to bottom, > and people expect a chronological sequence similar to this. Especially > people who are reading a lot of articles (and who therefore would > qualify as the ideal person to answer your question) appreciate it if > they can read at first the text to which you are referring. The quoted > text is some kind of help to remember the topic, which of course will > not work, if you place the quoted text below your response. > > Furthermore, that's the standard. This may sound as a weak argument, but > since people are not used to reading the other way around, they have no > idea what you are referring to and have to go back and forth between the > referenced articles, have to jump between different articles and so on. > In short - reading the article becomes more and more difficult - for > people who read many articles it is reason enough to skip the entire > article, if the context is not obvious. > > And besides: doesn't it look stupid to first get the answer and then see > the question? (Aside from Jeopardy, of course.) > > Furthermore, you (yes: You) save a lot of time using this way of > quoting: You do not need to repeat what the person you refer to wrote, > in order to show the context. You just place your comment after the text > you wish to comment upon, and everybody immediately knows what you refer > to. Also, you realize which text you are *not* responding to and can > delete these parts. > > So: using this technique you save time, your readers don't have to waste > time, you save bandwidth and disk-space. Isn't it great what you can > achieve by such simple means? > </quote> > > and that seems to imply that such posting styles on this list are the > desired guideline. > > Samples of similar on other lists: > > http://www.mozilla.org/about/forums/etiquette.html > <quote> > Top-posting vs bottom-posting. > > Some people like to put reply after the quoted text, some like it > the other way around, and still some prefer interspersed style. Debates > about which posting style is better have led to many flame wars in the > forums. To keep forum discussion friendly, please do interspersion with > trimming (see above for trimming rules). For a simple reply, this is > equivalent bottom-posting. So, remove extraneous material, and place > your comments in logical order, after the text you are commenting upon. > The only exceptions are the accessibility forums, which are top-posting. > </quote> > > http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists > <quote> > Proper quoting: > > Proper quoting is very important on mailing lists, to ensure that it is > easy to follow the conversation. There are four fundamental rules: > > .... > > Write your email underneath the email which you are replying to. > ... > </quote> > > and even: > http://www.openoffice.org/ml_guidelines.html > <quote> > Replying > When replying to other people it is customary to intersperse your > response with their questions, both so you can answer the actual > question that was asked, and so everyone else has some idea what you are > talking about. It is also customary to limit your quoting to the minimum > possible to get your point across. Take the time to be considerate, > remember those subscribers who have slow, expensive connections. > </quote> > > Note: that last is liable to go away given the recent > transition/announcements by Apache regarding mail lists... but it's > worth mentioning anyway. > > Eventually I hope that LO will actually include a link to general > posting guidelines on the > <http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/> page with complete > posting guidelines. Even if the final consensus is to only top post... > at least will help with consistancy on this (users), and the other LO lists. > > Added Note: I'd originally sent this to the users list as IMO that is > where the guidelines are needed most. So there may be some cross posting > in replies. > > > > > > -- > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org > Problems? > http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ > Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ > All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted > > -- Why is it that people who tell me what I need to eat to be healthy are invariably obese? -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
