[gentoo-dev] top-posting and mailing list etiquette

[gentoo-dev] top-posting and mailing list etiquette

[Aron Griffis]

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Lately it seems that both devs and non-devs are getting into the
top-posting habit on this mailing list.  If you're not familiar with
what I mean, here is an example.

    This is a top-posted reply to a message.

    So-and-so wrote:
    > Some text here.
    > Usually the entire message is quoted!

This is an annoying habit.  It's traditional on mailing lists to quote
only the text to which you're replying, and put your reply below the
quote.  For example:

    So-and-so wrote:
    > Some text here.

    This is a proper reply.

Please observe this rule when posting to this mailing list.  For more
information, see

    http://www.tux.org/lkml/#s3-9
    http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt

Regards,
Aron

--
Aron Griffis
Gentoo Linux Developer


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Re: [gentoo-dev] top-posting and mailing list etiquette

[Scott Hadfield]

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Just to add to this, I recently found this page:
http://kimihia.org.nz/articles/email/

It does a fairly good job of explaining some email etiquette and why 
some things are good or bad practice.

Cheers,
Scott

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Re: [gentoo-dev] top-posting and mailing list etiquette

[Collins Richey]

On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 11:27:26 -0400, Aron Griffis <agriffis@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Lately it seems that both devs and non-devs are getting into the
> top-posting habit on this mailing list.  If you're not familiar with
> what I mean, here is an example.
> 

> 
> This is an annoying habit.  It's traditional on mailing lists to quote
> only the text to which you're replying, and put your reply below the

> Please observe this rule when posting to this mailing list.  For more
> information, see
> 
>     http://www.tux.org/lkml/#s3-9
>     http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt
> 

Unfortunate but true, but my experience with those who top-post (based
on lengthy threads on gentoo-user and other lists) is that top-posters
are addicted to their habit and will not be dissuaded by logic or
appeals to netiquette. "I'll g-damn top-post if I want to," seems to
be the attitude. It's something akin to trying to teach a pig to dance
- you become covered with mud and it upsets the pig.

Ah well, perhaps the developers are a better example than the general populace.

It doesn't help that most mailer programs (mozilla is an exception)
automatically position the cursor in a reply for top-posting leaving
all the garbage that you must trim below, out of sight, and easy to
forget.

Thanks for the reminder.

-- 
 /\/\
(CR) Collins Richey
 \/\/        "I hear you're single again." "Spouse 2.0 had fewer bugs than
              Spouse 1.0, but the maintenance ... was too much for my OS."
                  - Glitch (tm)

--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-dev] top-posting and mailing list etiquette

[Aron Griffis]

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Folks,

I did not intend to start any sort of discussion.  I've heard that a
recent gentoo-users thread went on for 200 messages on this topic.

If you get this message before you click send, please consider
refraining from responding at all.  We don't need a non-productive
discussion.  I would prefer if you'd just ignore my original email
instead.

Regards,
Aron

--
Aron Griffis
Gentoo Linux Developer


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