[Arm-netbook] I saw your recent update, Luke

[Kyle]

Damn. You know a list has been taken over by posting nazis when entire 
threads get hijacked just to tell anyone who cares to listen that 
someone top posted, and that breaks someone's flow. Well, here's the 
deal. My e-mail client is threaded, so I see the whole conversation in 
order. It just flows naturally that way. If I want to read the same 
messages over and over, all I have to do is open them as many times as I 
want. There is therefore no need to quote anything at all, as I have the 
entire context. I'm looking at you especially, hard-core bottom posters, 
who just have to outlook-style quote the entire two ore more messages 
and move their cursor all the way down to the bottom to write their 
little one-liner response.

I see lots of this kind of thing:
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A: It messes up the flow of the conversation.
Q: What's wrong with top posting?
But instead, we should be asking ourselves how this looks. Please try 
not to read the entirety of the example below; just see how easy it will 
be to see my comments after the example:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi. How are you

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On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:30 PM, "Person A" <person.a at email.ext> rote:
 > Hi. How are you:

I'm doing well. And you?

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On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:32 PM, "Person B" <person.b at othermail.ext> 
wrote:
 > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:30 PM, "Person A" <person.a at email.ext> rote:
 > > Hi. How are you:
 >
 > I'm doing well. And you?

I'm having a great day. I just found this awesome information you just 
have to see about libre RISC computing. Could it be applied to your 
current work?
http://thisismysite.link/truly-free-computing-is-possible/

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----- Original message -----
From: "Person A" <person.a at email.ext>
Sent: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:34 PM
Subject: Re: Could this work?

 > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:32 PM, "Person B" 
<person.b at othermail.ext> wrote:
 > > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:30 PM, "Person A" <person.a at email.ext> 
rote:
 > > > Hi. How are you:
 > >
 > > I'm doing well. And you?
 >
 > I'm having a great day. I just found this awesome information you 
just have to see about libre >
RISC computing. Could it be applied to your current work?
 > http://thisismysite.link/truly-free-computing-is-possible/

This looks like something I came across a couple of days ago. I think it 
has some merit, but needs lots of time and money to make it work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:34 PM, "Person A" <person.a at email.ext> wrote:
 > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:32 PM, "Person B" 
<person.b at othermail.ext> wrote:
 > > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:30 PM, "Person A" <person.a at email.ext> 
rote:
 > > > Hi. How are you:
 > >
 > > I'm doing well. And you?
 >
 > I'm having a great day. I just found this awesome information you 
just have to see about libre
 > RISC computing. Could it be applied to your current work?
 > http://thisismysite.link/truly-free-computing-is-possible/

Yes. This looks quite promising. In fact, I've put lots of time and 
effort into this very idea. Thanks for the link.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:42 PM, "Person B" <person.b at othermail.ext> 
wrote:
 > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:34 PM, "Person A" <person.a at email.ext> 
wrote:
 > > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:32 PM, "Person B" 
<person.b at othermail.ext> wrote:
 > > > On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 8:30 PM, "Person A" 
<person.a at email.ext> rote:
 > > > > Hi. How are you:
 > > >
 > > > I'm doing well. And you?
 > >
 > > I'm having a great day. I just found this awesome information you 
just have to see about libre
 > > RISC computing. Could it be applied to your current work?
 > > http://thisismysite.link/truly-free-computing-is-possible/
 >
 > Yes. This looks quite promising. In fact, I've put lots of time and 
effort into this very idea. > Thanks for the link.

No problem. Glad to help.

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Usually, if I feel the need to quote at all, I keep my quotes short and 
my attributions shorter:
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Why is bottom posting bad?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

According to Person A:
# Why is bottom posting bad?

It forces readers to see the same message a hundred times or more before 
they can see responses. This makes it very hard to keep up with a 
thread, unless the reader intentionally comes in late. Threaded clients 
do all the hard work, so readers shouldn't have to.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

But most of the time, I try to retain context in other ways that don't 
require quoting:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Why is bottom posting bad?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bottom posting forces readers to see the same message a hundred times or 
more before they can see a response, making it hard to keep up with a 
thread unless they intentionally start reading late. Threaded clients do 
all the work, so readers shouldn't have to.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is what I do, and it would benefit readers everywhere. That said, I 
usually don't tell people how to post, and simply read the messages in 
context the best way I can. The problem is although I don't usually 
write my feelings about this rampant bottom posting down anywhere, I 
feel the need to speak out when threads start getting hijacked because 
someone posted something in a way that someone who wants to be the 
posting police didn't like.

I find this list to be quite informative, and I see a lot of good things 
coming in the hopefully not-too-distant future because of the ongoing 
work that is taking place here, as well as on various pages and articles 
linked here. However, post police hijacking threads to tell people 
they're posting wrong, when all they want to do is contribute to the 
discussion is counterproductive at best, has happened 2 to 3 times just 
on this list in the past 24 hours, has completely derailed a thread at 
least once in that time and is enough to make people who otherwise have 
good contributions want to leave.
~Kyle