[OT] unwritten list etiquette ate, was Re: Hooking Mechanism when Entering and Leaving a Try Block

[Michael Torrie]

On 08/13/2015 12:26 AM, Sven R. Kunze wrote:
> <snip>
> Btw. to me, the *context is the entire post*, not just two lines.

You're a very rare person indeed. Most people seem to not read any of
the post except the first and last lines. At least posting inline shows
me they've read and understood
the portion of my email they are quoting. Many times I've emailed
someone with a few details and
queries (not too many; attention spans are short), only to get a one
sentence, top-posted reply that completely fails to come remotely close
to answering my actual question. I went back and forth with one guy
three times once, each time pleading with him to read what I wrote.

Note that I removed content that isn't relevant to my reply, thus making
it easier for others to follow this.

> I hate if people answer me on every single word I've written and try 
> to explain what've got wrong instead of trying to understand the
> message and my perspective as a whole. I find it very difficult to
> respond to such a post and I am inclined to completely start from an
> empty post.

In my experience, when a person does this (delete everything and start
from an empty post, or just say screw it and top post), he or she is
likely the one who got the wrong message and failed to understand the
message or my perspective.  Not saying you do, but in general it's this
rationale that has led to the reaction people on usenet have to top
posting.