OT Annoying Habits (Was: when format strings attack)

[Steve Holden]

Carroll, Barry wrote:
> Greetings:
> 
> Personally, I don't think top-posting is the most annoying newsgroup
> habit.  I think it's making a big fuss about minor inconveniences.  
> 
> One of the nicest things about being human is the amazing flexibility of
> our brains.  For example, if a block of text isn't arranged in the order
> we're used to, we can easily rearrange it mentally and read it anyway.
> Oriental and Arabic peoples, for example, do this each time they read
> something written in English.  It's EASY, once you get used to it!
> 
That's as may be. but just last week I was presented with a printed 
five-page message where all contributors to the thread had top-posted. 
There were four and five levels of quoting in some places, line wrapping 
was all over the place as a result, and it was difficult to even make 
out which bits were quoted at the same level.

If everyone had refrained from top-posting then it would have been much 
easier to read the ensuing (linear) conversation. In short: top-posting 
doesn't hurt in simple cases, but it's a real hurdle to understanding in 
the long-running threads typically generated on mailing lists and 
newsgroups.

There are many people who find it natural to consider their own 
convenience over that of hundreds or thousands of others, so by all 
means continue with your top-posting habit if it's too much trouble to 
avoid it. It's unlikely to get you killed, but it *does* say something 
about you, and people will draw conclusions, possibly incorrect ones, 
about you as a result.

As a final riposte, our personal opinions aren't really much of a guide 
to the wishes of the masses, whereas the reaction of the masses (as in: 
"Why do you top-post?") often is. How often do you see someone ask 
"please start top-posting"? I've had precisely one such request in many 
many years of email and Internet usage.

regards
  Steve
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