Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 13:45:07 +0200 From: Brad Knowles <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org> To: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why top-posting is bad Message-ID: <p06002082bd58c1847fd6@[10.0.1.3]> In-Reply-To: <20040830105847.GA2108@online.fr> 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> <p06002068bd54de2a1bf6@[10.0.1.3]> <1093789942.4131e8f6b486a@imp1-q.free.fr> <p06002079bd57bed84da1@[10.0.1.3]> <20040830051243.GA976@online.fr> <p0600207fbd589b4c8ace@[10.0.1.3]> <20040830105847.GA2108@online.fr>
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At 4:28 PM +0530 2004-08-30, Rahul Siddharthan wrote:
> Tough. You're the one who's being picky about what you will or will
> not read.
I do choose not to read some messages, that's true. Perhaps the
subject doesn't sound interesting, or it looks like spam, or it's
from someone who I have come to know, dislike, and choose to ignore.
One is welcome to choose which category one prefers to fall into.
> 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.
Right, but if everyone followed this algorithm, then no one would
ever complain, and nothing would ever be done about the problem.
Therefore, you cannot recommend that everyone else follow this
algorithm, lest you destroy the very algorithm you use yourself.
Moreover, it is frequently helpful to be more vocal about this
sort of thing in private e-mail, because the person in question is
more likely to be someone you know, and this sort of thing is pretty
much always better to come from someone you know than some random
stranger.
Having a friend tell you that your fly is unzipped is much nicer
than running around with your underwear (or genitals) hanging out for
everyone to see, and then having some random stranger on the street
five hours later tell you what your friend should have told you
earlier.
> 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.
I strongly suspect that the header in question is automatically
added to messages which are incorrectly formatted, and that Greg
doesn't have to do any extra typing at all. He also doesn't have to
expend any blood pressure on the subject. His MUA recovers the
message format automatically, and he responds to the actual question
at hand, and doesn't have to worry about the rest.
> Unless you like to encourage the typical linuxer's opinion that the
> typical BSD user is an arrogant, pompous, obnoxious jerk.
If that's the perception that you want to create, by all means,
please continue your diatribe.
--
Brad Knowles, <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755
SAGE member since 1995. See <http://www.sage.org/>; for more info.
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