Date: Sun, 31 May 2020 14:21:57 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Aryeh Friedman <aryeh.friedman@gmail.com> Cc: Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@rocketmail.com>, FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: FreeBSD Cert Message-ID: <20200531142157.fdaf5e10.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <CAGBxaXk=zkz8debOhn4B5hBuVkfxQYANKzAvG4ZH8j8S5q4A6A@mail.gmail.com> References: <CY4PR19MB165585A7D4670DC49DB5523AF9B10@CY4PR19MB1655.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <626d9ab4-b00b-6112-8697-ea972eceb5b2@heuristicsystems.com.au> <CY4PR19MB0104A96DFD1E7341E18A65D4F98C0@CY4PR19MB0104.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <8696720e-3c03-8ffa-6b2c-4c4c98772a49@FreeBSD.org> <CY4PR19MB0104E969DF526271C147614AF98C0@CY4PR19MB0104.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <CY4PR19MB01048E1DAB5926767102192CF98C0@CY4PR19MB0104.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <20200531005421.8f845320.freebsd@edvax.de> <CY4PR19MB0104BA01C861C5788EFB7D12F98C0@CY4PR19MB0104.namprd19.prod.outlook.com> <20200531034231.5a6a7092@archlinux> <CAGBxaXk=zkz8debOhn4B5hBuVkfxQYANKzAvG4ZH8j8S5q4A6A@mail.gmail.com>
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Allow me to comment on just one aspect of your message: On Sat, 30 May 2020 22:16:42 -0400, Aryeh Friedman wrote: > Just a general comment on the "no top posting" "rule" that FreeBSD has no > one else has such a rule [...] It's not a rule, it's a recommendation, and there are valid reasons for this. In many cases, mailing list archives serve as a reference, and therefore it's helpful to be able to get the desired information from "the final message" which still contains the initial problem description. Less complex things surely can be discussed in a top-posting manner, but more complex things, especially those that discuss _more than one_ thing in _one_ message, really benefit from inline posting. And as you can see from my current message, I can even write something at the top, but not the statement that refers to what you said at the bottom of your message I am replying to. :-) > [...] and many mail clients do top posting by default > and make interleaving non-trivial (such OP's it appears). You say this as if it was something good... ;-) > Additionally > there is enough top posting being done on today's Internet that everyone > should be familiar with it and know how to read it in context. As I said, it's more _complex_ to read top-posted messages, especially those that do not contain reply headers and reply indentation. The "who said what" question cannot be answered easily, and you cannot easily follow a discusstion _thread_ with top posting. Others say it's unnatural, and just because some half-baked MUA started with top-posting as a default, it didn't improve anything. I'd like to leave those here: A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail? Souce: http://www.idallen.com/topposting.html And: A: Yes. Q: Are you sure? A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. Q: Why is top posting frowned upon? I don't have a specific source for that one, sorry. > So we > might want to recommend interleaving but it should not be some rule set in > stone that will get any newbie flamed for not using it, talk about one way > to turn people off to FreeBSD quickly. As you can see from the mailing list archives, it is not a rule, and it does not prevent users from posting to the list, or from receiving helpful answers. It's just a common consensus, a thing that you can find in many communities, contexts, and companies: Some use tabs, some use spaces; some use 4 spaces, others 2, and others 8. Some use PascalCase, others use_the_underscores, and others typical camelCase. And where does the { have to be put? Depending on already existing suggestions, recommendations and standards ("rules"), if you enter a specific context, it's usually helpful if you try to adapt to the existing consensus of how to do certain things. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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