Re: top posting (was: Hijack!)

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:00:00 -0600
"Scott Marlowe" <scott(dot)marlowe(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> You're certainly not. I can't tell you how many times I've
> carefully replied to someone with inline quoting, only to get some
> top post response. I then ask them politely not to top post, fix
> the format, reply, and get another top post reponse.

Jumping in here just cos I got tired to read here (nothing personal
Scott).
It is generally fun to read this kind of never-die thread in search
of the most stubborn reply but at the 4th reply they start to look
all equally stubborn.

a) people that have used email more than the average newcomers
and tried more clients they can remember agree that top posting in
technical discussions is generally[1] not efficient
b) this community agree that top posting is not welcome
c) replaying contextually and snipping will give people more chances
to get a reply
d) people here continue to remember that top posting is not efficient
to educate newcomers

I'd suggest to people that think differently to just conform to the
rule.
I'd suggest to idealists to avoid to convince stubborn people and as
a retaliation to their anti-social behaviour to avoid to reply to
their questions if they insist in not conforming to the rules or
pollute the list with pro top posting arguments.

This thread comes over and over and over on every mailing list.
We'd have a link pointing to the reasons why there are generally
better alternatives to top posting and cut the thread ASAP.
It is surprising how people with more experience than me on the
Internet get trapped in this kind of thread.

*Especially because we could use their time much better.*

Every time people like Tom Lane and Joshua D. Drake waste their time
in such kind of dump people on this list lose the chance to read
interesting stuff about Postgres, SQL and DB.

[1] In general; commonly; extensively, __though not universally__;
most frequently.

BTW it is not a case that Computer Science and *Information*
Technology are strict relatives

--
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it