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Subject: RE: Please explain!

RE: Please explain!

From: Christopher Woods <christof_at_infinitus.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 08:59:02 +0100

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se
> [mailto:rockbox-bounces_at_cool.haxx.se] On Behalf Of Paul Louden
> Sent: 26 August 2007 06:31
> To: Rockbox
> Subject: Re: Please explain!
>
> <snipped>


Gosh, everybody stop being so petty about this. I got into an argument
exactly like this before, and even had one of the list admins adding his 2p
worth, and it was after that I realised it's just such a small-minded, anal
thing to be getting aggravated about. Top-posting is from the days of BBSes;
email lists are an entirely different matter yet there is a distinct line
between the technical people who've been using one form or another of list
for decade or more, and the people who are just general day-to-day users. I
was having a discussion about top-versus-bottom posting with my Dad the
other day (who's 54 and was daisychaining his way across servers in his Uni
lab in the 1970s just for the hell of it whilst some of you probably weren't
even born) and even he agrees that top-posting is the most economical and
logical way of utilising and participating in email lists. Frankly, I think
my Dad's a sensible person, and I hold his opinion in high regard, that
satisfies me perfectly. To watch this squabble repeat itself time and again
on here detracts greatly from the overall value of this list and the vast
amount of knowledgeable people who both lurk and participate.

I'll adhere to the bottom-posting rules if I participate in this list for
two reasons: 1) I don't want to start another moebius-strip argument and 2)
I can't be bothered with the 'tunnel vision' style of 'obey or leave'. For a
list with as many potential newbies who I suggest don't really give a flying
barrel of monkeys whether they top- or bottom-post to ask a question or
reply to a thread, it's really frustrating whenever I see this kind of thing
happen, and I imagine it is for them too.


Why bother? Life's too short. This is a good list and I've learnt a lot from
it, but please... Can everybody really have *that* much of a valid reason
for arguing about whether people top- or bottom-post? If your email client
isn't clever enough to just display the messages in a threaded view on its
own, get a better one. Outlook and Thunderbird perform this function
perfectly well regardless of whether you top- or bottom-post (and I would
argue that top-posting is actually more beneficial for threaded discussion
views because you don't have to endlessly scroll to read replies in context,
and although I'm sure my idea has its detractors, that's my related 2p on
this, and nobody else on any of the other lists I participate in seem to
mind, in fact they do it themselves!)


If the listadmins and the more geeky (used in the nicest possible way, I
call myself a geek) people insist on fascist compliance with the
bottom-posting rule, may I suggest that all new subscribers are sent a
mandatory email outlining in bold, plain English the absolute requirement to
not top-post, and if they wish to do so more than once or twice can they
kindly piss off to their luser workspace? Because that's how I perceive the
attitude on here sometimes. The bofh lives...

Christopher
Received on 2007-08-26

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