On Mon, 14 May 2012 14:11:25 -0500 Alecks Gates <aleck...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 1:25 PM, Tanstaafl > <tansta...@libertytrek.org> wrote: > > This is only the case if the person who replies doesn't trim their > > quoted text - which is often the case when brain-dead top-posters > > try bottom (aka inline) posting... > > > > > > You should always strive to adjust you habits to the rules of the > > forum you are participating in... > > > > I loathe top-posting, but there are a few forums I participate in > > where that is the norm, so I just grin and bear it... > > > > Personally, gmail has given me a bad habit. It defaults to > top-posting in the web client, which I don't see how to change. But > at least on the desktop I can easily move formatting around. On the > Android client it seems rather archaic. Does anyone know how to > change to bottom-posting on either client? So around here we say don't top post rather bottom bottom, but what we actually mean is inline post with your contribution below the portion you are replying to and extraneous bits of the quoted text removed. Also liberal use of [snip] tags is encouraged. We generally tolerate gmail webapp users (trying to inline post on that is hard to do but possible) and reluctantly accept the smartphone users often have no choice as it's impossible to do anything other than top post on many devices (especially BlackBerrys). Such users should leave the nice "Sent from my BlackBerry" comment at the bottom, it helps indicate you can't avoid the top-post. All of these "rules" are like any other form of good manners - designed to smooth communication and make it a pleasant thing to do. Just like in real life, it's equally good manners to indicate up-front if you can't do the norm. Example: some places it's expected that men stand up when a lady enters the room. But not if the man has a broken leg, in which case he should make sure the plaster cast and crutches can be seen. See how it works? :-) -- Alan McKinnnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
