Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Marco Matthies <marco-ml@×××.net>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] why gentoo doesn't have long description?
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 07:43:44
Message-Id: 430EC69A.208@gmx.net
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] why gentoo doesn't have long description? by "W.Kenworthy"
1 W.Kenworthy wrote:
2 > Lastly, top/bottom posting is a religion so you are unlikely to change
3 > either groups opinion, but just cause angst.
4
5 [This is not meant as a flame, so please read this message to a
6 lighthearted tune, sipping a glass of wine in the comfort of your
7 favourite easy-chair :) -- and everyone else, please excuse this
8 message's total offtopicness]
9
10 A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
11 Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
12 A: Top-posting.
13 Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
14
15 Yeah, that one's a classic, but I think it quite nicely illustrates the
16 point. I agree with you that it is annoying to scroll through a whole 10
17 pages of quoted e-mail conversation just to find the two-line answer
18 hidden at the bottom, and that top-posting in this case would seem more
19 pleasant. But I think this is an indication that the poster could not be
20 bothered to actually quote the relevant passages that he is answering to
21 instead of just unnecessarily leaving the whole conversation in, which
22 other readers will have read previously anyway.
23
24 The purpose of a quote IMHO should be a short reminder to other readers
25 which part of the conversation you are referring to in order to prevent
26 misunderstandings, not a complete ISO-9000 compatible documentation of
27 the whole thing. When people include everything, they actually make it
28 harder to tell which part they are referring to.
29
30 So, I hope i haven't annoyed you too much with my ramblings. Maybe it's
31 best to think about the whole issue under the aspect of better
32 communication than some sort of holy "netiquette that must be strictly
33 adhered to lest burning in the depths of nethell be avoided". I really
34 do think that this is not a religious issue between textmode/graphical
35 clients (i use thunderbird myself) but that there are actually rational
36 arguments that can be made, and I hope you consider my post in this light.
37
38 Thanks,
39 Marco
40
41 Disclaimer in case anyone is going to call me on it:
42 Yes, I used to top-post myself till not so long ago (and also got
43 annoyed when people got righteous about it), as e-mails on this list
44 dating back a mere 3 months or more will illustrate...
45 --
46 gentoo-user@g.o mailing list

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] why gentoo doesn't have long description? "A. Khattri" <ajai@××××.net>