syntax oddities

[Paul Moore]

On 18 May 2018 at 12:08, Rhodri James <rhodri at kynesim.co.uk> wrote:
> On 17/05/18 23:44, Paul wrote:
>>
>> I've been using email for thirty years, including thousands of group
>> emails
>> at many tech companies, and no one has ever suggested, let alone insisted
>> on, bottom posting.
>
> I've been using email for thirty years, etc, etc, and I've always insisted
> on proper quoting, trimming and interspersed posting.  Clearly you've never
> worked in the right companies ;-)

There are two completely independent cultures here. In "Corporate"
cultures like where I work (where IT and business functions interact a
lot, and business users typically use tools like Outlook) top-posting
is common, conventional, and frankly, effective. Conversely, in purely
technical communities like open source, where conventions originated
in low-bandwidth channels like early networks, interspersed posting,
heavy trimming and careful quoting are the norm. I've participated in
both communities for 30 years or more, and you deal with people in the
way that they find most comfortable.

It's polite to follow the conventions of the community that you're
interacting with - so on this mailing list, for example, quoting and
posting inline is the norm and top-posting is considered impolite.
Arguing about how the community's conventions are wrong is also
impolite :-) I'm reminded of the old stereotypes of Brits speaking
English NICE AND LOUDLY to foreigners to help them understand what
we're saying... (Disclaimer: I'm a Brit, so I'm poking fun at myself
here :-))

Paul