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W.Kenworthy wrote: |
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> Lastly, top/bottom posting is a religion so you are unlikely to change |
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> either groups opinion, but just cause angst. |
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|
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[This is not meant as a flame, so please read this message to a |
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lighthearted tune, sipping a glass of wine in the comfort of your |
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favourite easy-chair :) -- and everyone else, please excuse this |
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message's total offtopicness] |
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A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. |
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Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? |
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A: Top-posting. |
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Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail? |
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Yeah, that one's a classic, but I think it quite nicely illustrates the |
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point. I agree with you that it is annoying to scroll through a whole 10 |
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pages of quoted e-mail conversation just to find the two-line answer |
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hidden at the bottom, and that top-posting in this case would seem more |
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pleasant. But I think this is an indication that the poster could not be |
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bothered to actually quote the relevant passages that he is answering to |
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instead of just unnecessarily leaving the whole conversation in, which |
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other readers will have read previously anyway. |
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The purpose of a quote IMHO should be a short reminder to other readers |
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which part of the conversation you are referring to in order to prevent |
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misunderstandings, not a complete ISO-9000 compatible documentation of |
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the whole thing. When people include everything, they actually make it |
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harder to tell which part they are referring to. |
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So, I hope i haven't annoyed you too much with my ramblings. Maybe it's |
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best to think about the whole issue under the aspect of better |
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communication than some sort of holy "netiquette that must be strictly |
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adhered to lest burning in the depths of nethell be avoided". I really |
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do think that this is not a religious issue between textmode/graphical |
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clients (i use thunderbird myself) but that there are actually rational |
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arguments that can be made, and I hope you consider my post in this light. |
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Thanks, |
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Marco |
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Disclaimer in case anyone is going to call me on it: |
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Yes, I used to top-post myself till not so long ago (and also got |
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annoyed when people got righteous about it), as e-mails on this list |
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dating back a mere 3 months or more will illustrate... |
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-- |
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