From: floyd@... (Floyd L. Davidson) Date: 2006-09-02T19:46:04+09:00 Subject: Re: Off topic: What is "top posting" ?? "Austin Ziegler" wrote: >On 9/1/06, Floyd L. Davidson wrote: >> This is not a "forum", it is Usenet. There are *many* different >> reading environments, some of which are entirely different than >> that presented in a "forum". > >No, in fact, it isn't. What you're actually reading is the result of a >gateway. The primary source for this forum (ruby-forum.com/ruby) or >this newsgroup (comp.lang.ruby) is a mailing list: >ruby-tak@ruby-lang.org. > >Please don't pretend that either the forum or Usenet is prime here. Once you gateway it to Usenet, that *is* prime. There are instantly *millions* of potential readers, plus it is archived and will be read by people decades from today. Usenet eclipses anything a mailing list or a web forum is contributing, regardless of how it all began. >They're alternative views on the mailing list, but both are gatewayed >to and from the mailing list. > >Forum users: yes, mailing list people and Usenet people get pissed off >with top posters (r) contextless posters because we may *not* have the >originating message immediately in front of us, even with a threading >newsreader or mail reader. In fact, in a forum where the context supposedly is available, it is *not* effectively available. Usually it is impossible to determine even which article is being responded to, much less which part of the article the comment applies to. That simply is not effective communications. -- Floyd L. Davidson Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) floyd@apaflo.com