Problem!

[Lee Revell]

On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 12:28 -0600, Chuck MATTSEN wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:55:45 -0600, Lee Revell <rlrevell at joe-job.com>  
> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 11:28 -0600, Chuck MATTSEN wrote:
> >> When all is said and done, I am always left wondering just how much more
> >> could be accomplished by all if everyone could simply agree to _let go_  
> >> of the endless top-posting vs. bottom-posting, M$ vs. Linux, .rpm vs.
> >> .deb/distro vs. distro -- ad nauseum -- debates....
>     <snip>
> >
> > People will never "let go" of it because the brain does not adjust to
> > top posting no matter how much one is exposed to it.
> 
> Nonsense.  About half of my lists are composed of non-techie types, the  
> majority of whom top post.  When in Rome, I top post, otherwise they don't  
> see my respsonses, since they're not looking for them at the bottom.   
> Otherwise, I generally bottom post or intersperse where appropriate.  But  
> the conversations on the top posted list are just as easy for me to follow  
> as the others.

Yeah I guess I'll just have to get used it being like a context or
formal/vernacular dialect thing, where I have to keep track of whether
I'm conversing with techies or non-techies and adjust my behavior
accordingly... fortunately people ARE quite good at that.

Someone else brough up the HTML mail issue - actually that was not
resolved by everyone "just getting used to HTML mail" - quite the
contrary, techies still react with shock and horror - it was solved by
smarter mailers, that have options like "Prompt when sending HTML mail
to contacts that do not want them".

I suspect the top/bottom posting issue will eventually have to be
resolved by more intelligence in the mailer - it's so much easier than
changing user behavior...

Lee