From: Just Another Victim of the Ambient Morality Date: 2006-09-03T04:00:30+09:00 Subject: Re: Off topic: What is "top posting" ?? "William Crawford" wrote in message news:46e8668aa99772ce7406c801faabee14@ruby-forum.com... > Just Another Victim of the -spamfilter-t Morality wrote: >> My point is that just because _you_ don't find top posting confusing >> doesn't mean it's a good idea to top post. Since you are trying to >> communicate with us and we (at least, I) find top-posting confusing, it >> would be better if you were to refrain from it. You're trying to get >> your >> point across to us, right? > > I have accepted and acknowledged that this list requires bottom-posting > not only to abide by the rules, but to prevent inconveniencing the > majority of the long-time members. That is not at debate. Of course. My apologies for logging the dead horse... > But again, the OP asked in general, and in general, I say it's a > stalemate. Neither side is 'right or wrong', 'polite or impolite', > 'confusing or clear', or any pair of opposites assuming the person > posting the message knows how to get his/her point across. If by "in general" you mean "with no context to the situation" then yes. It's neither an issue of politeness nor righteousness. Then again, without context, it's not a particularly interesting or useful question, so I doubt that's how it was intended. Perhaps you're right about the "we assume everyone is like us" syndrome since, after reading the original post, it looks to me like they're asking "what is top posting" in the context of usenet when, for all I know, they asked this in the mailing list or the web forum. I don't know about those other mediums but I certainly know the protocol for usenet and responded accordingly. Do those other mediums have similar protocols? I'm actually on a few web forums (though not the ruby one) and no one top-posts despite there being no rule or protocol about it. It's just not something people naturally do. I have never been on a mailing list... >> Well, if you can't speak for others, why would you say things like > "I >> think we're all guilty of ego-centrism here." You are clearly speaking > for >> others when you say that they are, too... > > 'Speaking for others' means you are stating how they feel, not what they > have done. Instead, I was noting the tendency for people in this thread > to assume everyone else was like them. Usenet posters assumed they were > the largest group, List posters and Web posters did the same thing. > Only 1 of those groups can be right, and I haven't seen statistics to > back any of them up. Everyone also assumes that their posting > preference is best for everyone, or at least 'least harmful' for > everyone. I'd be surprised if usenet posters actually thought they were the largest group. Usenet has become an esoteric medium and, thus, the usenet population has become rather small, at least in comparison. Ask the random man on the street if they know what e-mail or the WWW is and they will say something along the lines of "of course." Ask them what usenet is, or what newsgroups are, and they will give you a puzzled look... I don't know if people assume their posting preferences are best for everyone, either. Personally, I happen to know that my quotes don't print well on the web forum and I lament that but I'm reticent to do anything about it until I understand exactly why they don't work out there... > Back on the polite issue, I will agree that posting contrary to the > groups wishes is impolite. But when the group's wishes (the world's > wishes) are unknown, it is not impolite to post in a manner that does > not bother you. I will continue to only bottom-post here and top and > bottom post as I see the need to everyone else. Well, this has become a semantic argument and I'm sure neither of us are interested in that. Is it rude of me to take things without asking if I don't know that it's rude? > My argument stands: Top-posting is not inherently impolite or > incorrect. It deepnds on where you are doing it. Of course... so much so that it doesn't bear saying...