Top-posting shenanigans (was: Re: ASR33 $1000+ And Counting...)

From: Jay West <jwest_at_classiccmp.org>
Date: Fri Feb 25 00:15:06 2005

Evan wrote...
> Jay: in your original reply to my "what the heck is this?" message
> tonight, you
> told me not to worry about it, and so I said don't worry, I'm not.
Actually, when I said don't worry about it I was referring to not knowing
about it, not doing it :)

>.... and apparently a step away from being
> banned entirely.
I said absolutely no such thing. To even make SURE it wasn't taken that way,
I used "HTML" tags

> (Granted, you were probably and rightfully ticked off about
> the time, thinking "I killed myself to fix the servers for THIS!?")
The server is far from fixed. But it is progressing, in and around moving a
datacenter and taking care of WorkStuff(tm). When I start rebuilding the
HTML archives from the raw mailbox files and htdigging them for searching,
I'm going to be extremely glad it's a P4 in there with mirrored drives.

> Considering that I've never heard a single word about this in my
> approximately
> two years on the list (and two decades using newsgroups), and that I've
> never
> even heard the term "top-posting" at all in whole life
Well, actually, you probably HAVE heard about top posting before if you read
the list, because the way I found out about it was when several people
chided a few list members for it publicly on the list. This happened (at
least when I noticed it) about a year ago, and again more recently I
believe. I blatantly asked on the list "Ok, just what *IS* top-posting" and
received my education. At first I could see their point but it seemed a
little silly. But I did some research on it and some thinking, and I've come
around to agree. However, before you go off the deep end, please see the 2nd
paragraph above.

> (Nor am I by any means declaring my online experience to hold a candle to
> some
> other list members'. Just saying this: doesn't it seem odd that in all
> this
> time, the topic hasn't come up? Just a little, folks??)
It has come up, several times, but it's never turned into a big discussion.
I'm rather glad it finally did, but please review paragraph 2 above ;)

> outcastness, it turns out there's a holy war about the proper way
So how do you decide what common areas of netiquette to internalize and
which ones to throw out? And statistically it's unlikely all will agree with
the same choices. Just as you are perfectly free to say it's silly, some of
us are perfectly free to say it's somewhat inkling of rudeness. It's called
freedom of the press & speech ;)

> damn email? Geez, people, get out more. Honestly. Who gives a crap,
It's very simple really. You don't have to give a crap about how other
people may view a post. But it's mind-expanding to at least give some
tolerance and understanding as to how others may view it. If you don't think
I'm being tolerant in expressing my view on it, please see paragraph 2
above.

> enemy in -- gasp -- real is Mr. Osama bin Laden, yet we manage to speak
> his
> name without feeling the need to contort it. But I suppose you
> bottom-poster
> militants would insist that bin Laden's not the threat that Bill Gates
> is?)
Did you not voice the opinion that this discussion was silly? Based on the
above paragraph, I must now agree.

Regards,

Jay West
Received on Fri Feb 25 2005 - 00:15:06 GMT