From: Chad Perrin Date: 2006-09-03T08:23:23+09:00 Subject: Re: Off topic: What is "top posting" ?? On Sun, Sep 03, 2006 at 04:00:30AM +0900, Just Another Victim of the Ambient Morality wrote: > "William Crawford" wrote in message > news:46e8668aa99772ce7406c801faabee14@ruby-forum.com... > > > > 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... It varies from list to list (having been on many). In general, in regards to top/bottom/inline posting, lists tend to either have a "no top-posting" rule or no rules about it at all. Those that have no rules about it at all tend to occasionally develop complications where a discussion will get very involved with lots of inline posting, and someone comes along to start top-posting, completely screwing up the flow of the conversation. On the other side of the coin, with lists that have "no top-posting" rules, things tend to proceed smoothly until someone new to the list (or simply stubborn) top-posts, at which point that person may or may not be chastised overly harshly for the error. This might produce any number of outcomes, including never posting to the list again, a flamewar, apology and compliance, or a discussion like this. -- CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ] This sig for rent: a Signify v1.14 production from http://www.debian.org/