From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 23 11:12:40 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 03C7E16A417 for ; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:12:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [IPv6:2001:1b20:1:3::1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6107513C457 for ; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:12:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id lANBCWrp004570; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:12:37 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.14.1/8.14.1/Submit) id lANBCW1P004569; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:12:32 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from olli) Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:12:32 +0100 (CET) Message-Id: <200711231112.lANBCW1P004569@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG, fgaughan@gmail.com In-Reply-To: X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-chat User-Agent: tin/1.8.3-20070201 ("Scotasay") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/6.2-STABLE-20070808 (i386)) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.1.2 (lurza.secnetix.de [127.0.0.1]); Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:12:38 +0100 (CET) Cc: Subject: Re: top posting (off-topic) X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG, fgaughan@gmail.com List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:12:40 -0000 Fintan Gaughan wrote: > Well i am top posting cos gmail says so :-) gmail does not force you to top-post. (If it did, I would propose to ban gmail addresses from the mailing lists.) > From what i have been told that news group you don't top post but in > mail list such as this one its ok to top post. There's no such difference between news groups and mailing lists, at least from a user perspective. In fact, I do read the FreeBSD mailing lists via an NNTP gateway which stores them as news groups. I'm using a newsreader client to read them (ports/news/tin) instead of an email client. > Correct me if i am wrong but you can configure newsgroup reader to > scroll to bottom or post where with email clients you have to scroll > down to each one. I'm sorry but that's nonsense. It depends entirely on the kind of client software you're using, and how it is configured. It's _not_ a newsgroup vs. email thing. Apart from that, you're supposed to delete those parts of the quote that are irrelevant to your reply. You should keep only those parts that are required to understand the context. If you adhere to that rule, then the quoted text is small enough that having to scroll down is not a real issue. Those people who do not top-post, but don't delete any quoted text in a reasonable way either, aren't doing it right either. Normally you should _not_ see multiple pages of quoted text with tons of indentation. That's almost as bad as top-posting. In ancient times, everybody was posting correctly (i.e. with minimal but sufficient quoting, and writing the reply below). I guess because it was the most natural thing to do it that way, both for the person writing it and for the people reading it. The problem with top- posting started to appear when certain graphical clients started to become widely used which put the cursor at the top above the fully quote text, and users were too lazy to move down, delete irrelevant parts of the quote and write the answers below. Instead they just typed their text right away and klicked the "send" button. For example, almost the entire full quote that you you had below your reply was completely useless, confusing and a waste of space and bandwidth. Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M. Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606, Geschäftsfuehrung: secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht Mün- chen, HRB 125758, Geschäftsführer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd "In My Egoistical Opinion, most people's C programs should be indented six feet downward and covered with dirt." -- Blair P. Houghton