[ubuntu-uk] Moan -- Top Posting (was "Apps for kids")

[Joe O'Dell]

> 
> Which says...
> 
> ---quote---
> "Proper quoting:

Yes, I know what the guidelines say. As do at least 50% of the mailing list posters.

I respect that some may not, but they can read it in their own time.

> And we've now had one person do it several times this morning (and
> apologise for it in the same post) and another deliberately say "I
> can't be bothered to cut from this second window on my Android phone,
> so I bet you'll get top posting" which (of course) we did.

Excuse Me? He never ONCE said "I can't be bothered to cut from this second window".

Sometimes there are technical issues which mean that it is hard to no top-post, and I do not think that it is much of a problem.

> And the PROBLEM is that when you let guidelines be ignored 90% of the
> time then "everybody jumps on the bandwagon" and things will get much
> worse for those who don't want e-mails 200 lines long where only the
> first 20 words are relevant.

What, emails 200+ lines long like yours?

No-one is going to "Jump on the bandwagon". This is a mailing list for christ's sake, not a bloody gravy train.
People do it occasionally because they can't due to issues, because they are in a rush or because they just don't want to.
You are "punishing" the whole spectrum, whereas you should be focussing on the latter.

> And a "quiet private e-mail" wouldn't have initiated a discussion,
> which is what I wanted to do.  Because it's not just Neil Greenwood
> who does it... David Jones just illustrated this, with a particularly
> "wind up" e-mail where he top posted loads and loads of stuff "because
> he could" -- that's not good, is it?

Oh, so you wanted to stir it up? 

And yes, a private email would have been better, as the person in question probably didn't want their email exploded across all four corners of the Ubuntu UK Mailing List.

And as for your previous email:
> If they are making phones that "make it impossible to not top post"
> then "they" should be told of their mistake... are you saying the
> iPhone does this, because if it does my friend Hugo is in charge of
> that particular development at Apple in California and I can ask him
> for his views on it... as somebody who has been on mailing lists, like
> me, for years I think I can safely say that Hugo will say "no it
> doesn't, they're just being lazy".


You do realise that we, mailing list users, equate for less than 25% of people worldwide - they are not going to make a special mailing list function for a phone for something like the iPhone, because there is not a high enough demand.
You may well have Hugo who is in charge of Apple Development, but if it doesn't need to be on a phone, they aren't going to put it in.
-------------------------------------------------------
Joe O'Dell

GreenerClassrooms Project Co-Ordinator
http://www.greenerclassrooms.org.uk

Fedora Ambassador & Contributor (FreeMedia)
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ascenseur

bedsLUG Co-Ordinator
beds.lug.org.uk

DFEY Member (SouthEast)
dfey.org



On 7 Aug 2010, at 08:34, Sean Miller wrote:

> On 7 August 2010 08:14, Joe O'Dell <joseph.odell at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> For reference, for anyone that is actually bothered by mailing list
>> etiquette, here is the Ubuntu Mailing List
>> Guidelines: http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists
> 
> 
> Proper quoting is very important on mailing lists, to ensure that it
> is easy to follow the conversation. There are four fundamental rules:
> 
>    *
> 
>      When replying to an email, ensure that the email which you are
> replying to is indented with a symbol such as > or | (this is usually
> done from the preferences of your email client - most should do this
> by default).
>    *
> 
>      When quoting, attribute the quoted text to the person who wrote
> it (again, most email clients will do this by default). Be careful to
> attribute the correct text to the correct person.
>    *
> 
>      Write your email underneath the email which you are replying to.
>    *
> 
>      Tailor your reply to fit the text which you are replying to. Do
> not quote the whole of the previous email - remove any unnecessary
> text. To avoid confusion, it's often a good idea to replace removed
> text with a brief indication that something has been removed, like
> [snip]."
> ---end quote---
> 
> In other words, the Ubuntu Mailing List Guidelines specifically state
> what people should be doing.
> 
> 
> 
> Can't we police this a little?  As it's starting to annoy me...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sean
> 
> -- 
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/

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