From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 30 10:58:51 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7729E16A520 for ; Mon, 30 Aug 2004 10:58:50 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail2.imsc.res.in (mail2.imsc.res.in [203.199.209.87]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A171D43D53 for ; Mon, 30 Aug 2004 10:58:49 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rsidd@online.fr) Received: from banyan.imsc.ernet.in ([202.41.95.76]) by mail2.imsc.res.in with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1) id 1C1k3r-0004ws-00 for freebsd-chat@freebsd.org; Mon, 30 Aug 2004 16:40:55 +0530 Received: from bluerondo (dhcp25.imsc.res.in [172.16.12.50] (may be forged)) i7UAwjIG007798 for ; Mon, 30 Aug 2004 16:28:47 +0530 Received: (qmail 2158 invoked by uid 1002); 30 Aug 2004 10:58:47 -0000 Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 16:28:47 +0530 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: Brad Knowles Message-ID: <20040830105847.GA2108@online.fr> Mail-Followup-To: Brad Knowles , Greg 'groggy' Lehey , freebsd-chat@freebsd.org References: <007001c485ec$9d3bbb10$3300a8c0@verizon.net> <9FDC1E28-F1E2-11D8-AE79-000393BB56F2@HiWAAY.net> <20040819134840.GA3104@online.fr> <20040822015558.GO92256@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20040827114038.GA2453@online.fr> <1093789942.4131e8f6b486a@imp1-q.free.fr> <20040830051243.GA976@online.fr> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-Operating-System: DragonFly 1.1-CURRENT i386 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i cc: Greg 'groggy' Lehey cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why top-posting is bad X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 10:58:51 -0000 Brad Knowles said on Aug 30, 2004 at 10:59:59: > At 10:42 AM +0530 2004-08-30, Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > > If you want to go about correcting the world's email habits, you > > should (a) make sure that the problem you're seeing is clearly > > referenced in the web page you link to, (b) if that's not the case, > > say what the problem is. > > Again, we get back to the problem of it being impossible to > enumerate all the potential permutations and combinations of various > different things that people might do wrong in formatting a message. Tough. You're the one who's being picky about what you will or will not read. > If you think you can do better, I would encourage you to do so -- > lead by example. Sure. Here's my algorithm: 1. In private mail, I really don't care, unless the formatting is truly egregious. On such (very rare) occasions I've prodded the sender a bit. 2. On public mailing lists, I know perfectly well that others will complain louder than I do, so I don't care. So just cool off a bit. And if a message is necessary at all, may I suggest something a bit dignified like "On public mailing lists, properly formatted mails are helpful: see http://www.lemis.com/email/email-format.html" And, if it's a non-obvious formatting error, say what the problem is rather than leave the reader wondering "What did I do?" or "What's this Grog guy ranting about?" If you can spend time whining about it you can spend 20 seconds writing about it. Plus it's better for the blood pressure. Unless you like to encourage the typical linuxer's opinion that the typical BSD user is an arrogant, pompous, obnoxious jerk. Rahul