[OT] Posting etiquette (was Problems with NRPE)

[Michael Tucker]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2004 at 10:11:36AM -0600, Michael Tucker wrote:

> TIP #1 TO POSTERS:
>
> A: Because it makes it hard to follow the discussion.
> Q: What's wrong with posting your reply at the top of the message?
>
> TIP #2 TO POSTERS:
>
> Please trim your messages!
>
> AND NOW, BACK TO THE DISCUSSION IN PROGRESS...
>
> [much snippage]

To which Joe Rhett replied:

> Frankly, I used to feel that way and now I'm starting to lean the other
> way.  After having to scroll down 5 or 6 pages past not only the 
> original
> content by also the various tag-on advertising that someone does only 
> to
> find a single line update .... it's stupid.
>
> [much more snippage]
>
> The end result is the same amount of text, but you are not forced to
> re-read everything you already read.  However, if you wish to review
> previous notes, they are available for you.
>
> Top-posting is the only sensible way to conduct one-sentence responses.
>

I agree that for simple "Hi, how are you?" "Fine, thank you. How are 
you?" type chatty emails, top-posting is convenient.

However, this is a technical forum, filled with lengthy messages 
containing lots of data, the understanding of which depends upon a 
grasp of the context of the discussion - i.e., the relevant portions of 
the previous messages in the thread - preferably without having to go 
back and read all the old messages one by one.

Sometimes it makes sense to say "Here's the summary of my problem. I've 
appended config files, etc., to the end of this message." (A variant of 
top-posting.) But more often than not, I personally find it easier to 
follow a discussion if things are quoted in chronological order, first 
to last, with new comments at the end. I can read it the other way, but 
this way makes more sense to me. It's only *truly* maddening when a 
long post has been top- and bottom-posted seemingly at random, thus:

>> A3 (top-posted to A2)
>>> A2 (top-posted to A1)
>>>>> Q1, the original question
>>> A1 (bottom-posted to Q1)
> A4 (bottom-posted to A3)
A5 (bottom-posted to A4), the latest reply

This is made worse when people fail to clip long sig's, advertisements, 
and other garbage frequently attached to each message. And worse still 
when discussions stray from the original topic without changing the 
subject line. (Note that I have done so with this message, since this 
conversation no longer has anything whatsoever to do with NRPE.)

Your post was neither a one-sentence reply, nor did you trim the 
irrelevant parts of the message(s) you were quoting. Thus, your lengthy 
reply made no sense (to me) until scrolling down to see what you were 
replying to; and your overall post was 3 times as long as it needed to 
be, due to the inclusion of irrelevant stuff.

To each his (or her) own, your mileage may vary, etc. But I strongly 
agree with Rob Nelson, who said:

> Most of that can be fixed by people learning to cut and snip 
> intelligently... [and keeping] messages ... short and to the point ...

Yours,
Michael



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