On Sat, 2008-11-01 at 01:04 -0400, R P Herrold wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Oct 2008, Craig White wrote:
>
> >> On Sat, 1 Nov 2008, Ted Gould wrote:
> >>
> >>> I'm going to top post, you'll have to deal :)
>
> > I suspect as iPhone's and other handheld convenient devices
> > become more prevalent, the top post will become normal and
> > accepted.
>
> Yeah -- that is the argument that Notes and Outlook uses put
> forth; Gmail too. But none of those were Ted's MUA:
>
> > X-Mailer: Evolution 2.24.1
>
> Having and using Gmail, and both a Blackberry and an iTouch
> which I use for email, I assure that all support trimming, 'at
> the bottom', and 'interspersed' posting in a straightforward
> manner.
>
> > I'm not sure that kill file is always the best answer and
> > Ted Gould is pretty knowledgeable and one whose postings I
> > definitely want to read.
>
> I'm pretty sure that consciously flouting known conventions of
> a mailing list [regardless of a smiley] is an indicator that
> the person doing it prefers to burden everyone else, rather
> than do what that person 'knows' the expectation is.
>
> If you leave food out on the counters, you get roaches; if you
> reward improper behaviour, the exceptions swallow up the rule,
> and entropy wins sooner. If the rule is wrong, lobby to
> change it; my vote on Ted's proposal to dump 'don't top post'
> was stated publicly in my post.
----
trust me, I'm capable of looking at the headers to inspect what MUA Ted
was using and it's a very new version of Evolution, which I presume is
probably bundled with Ubuntu 8.10 as I recall that he was hired by
Ubuntu after his sponsorship in Blender development ended.
My point is clear though...I am seeing more and more e-mail replies
coming from blackberries, iphones, etc. and though they can edit/delete,
it is more cumbersome and the cursor selection/movement gestures are
more cumbersome. First it was the Microsoft mail clients that positioned
for top posting, then Gmail did much the same (and even obscures the
content to which you are replying to discourage you from editing it) and
now handhelds and I think that the traditional notions of netiquette are
certain to fall.
I HATE top posting as much as anyone and have at times refused to
respond to top posted replies just out of principle BUT...
The endless discussions and the encouragement that some find to act as
list mom's just seems to make the whole issue rather pedantic and
unnecessary, especially with someone like Ted who clearly knows how the
community feels about top posting.
I'm settled into the opinion that you ask participants once, nicely, to
not top post and then let it go because the cascade of posts on
netiquette that is sure to follow is just never worth it.
Craig
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list -
PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
(text/plain)