Top-posting [Was: Installing with apt-get]

[Dotan Cohen]

On 23/06/06, Thiers Botelho <thiersb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Adding my 2 cents to this immortal discussion . . .
>
> 1. I use Gmail via Web, which defaults to top-posting.

So do I. So when I reply I hit Page Down once or twice to get to the
bottom. It's no more difficult than lifting the toilet seat before
peeing. (and the wife won't bitch if you don't hit Page Up when you're
done!)

> 2. When writing / replying to uh, er, "normal" people I always do
> top-posting. It's the commercial way of doing it as I've witnessed it
> thru the last decade or so.

If you like the commercial way of doing things then why are you on the
mailing list for a non-commercial OS? For that matter, does the
commercial OS even _have_ a mailing list? What is meant be "the
commercial way of doing it", anyway? It's certainly not the popular
way of "doing it".

> 3. When posting to mailing lists I _try_ to always do bottom-posting.
> Although I have to bend Gmail's ways to achieve it, it's the only way
> to achieve acceptance, recognition, glory and helpful replies from the
> lists.

Agreed. It took me a few months to get into the habit completely, but
now that I bottom post, I certainly see it's merits and I would
_prefer_ that others do as well. However, I'm not about to go reteach
the wolrd to do as I prefer.

> 4. When reading from mailing lists I absolutely don't care if postings
> come top- or bottom- or interleaved-formatted. Since I don't pay
> anything for hittting PgUp & PgDn keys as many times as required, all
> 3 ways require about the same effort to read.

With my broken thumb, I _do_ care. It is sometimes very difficult for
me to do repetitive tasks. Hitting space to go down in a message is
possible. Hitting Up/Down repeatably is not. For people using screen
readers, top posting is even worse.

> 5. I do recognize that sometimes people abuse form and trample
> content. Take for instance this hilarious example, picked from a
> thread where people got carried away at insterspersing text and
> managed to reach the pinnacle of obscurity:
>
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2006-June/083151.html

Actually, I followed that thread. And I think that that particualr
thread clearly demonstrates the advantages of adding the comments into
the quote. It is possible to follow the post much like a conversation.

> (of special note to any one trying to read aforementioned posting: pay
> special attention to the quotation added at the bottom. It somehow
> fits nicely with the feelings that the poster and his interlocutor
> expressed towards each other throughout the thread).
>

Pure FUD!

Dotan Cohen
http://gmail-com.com
32