Top posting - was Re: sendmail vulnerability

[pll at lanminds.com]

In a message dated: 07 Mar 2003 13:46:24 EST
Jeff Macdonald said:

>> I don't mean to sound unusually harsh, however, the idea that your 
>> personal laziness is more important than being considerate to others 
>> in this community I find totally intolerable.
>
>Just because I have 'done' top posting doesn't mean I always do. And
>where did I say my laziness was more important?

When you stated:
	
>>>>> On 6 Mar 2003, "Jeff" == Jeff Macdonald wrote:

  Jeff> I've done top posting because I'm to lazy to delete all the
  Jeff> text that Evolution places in the message by default.

You automatically placed your convenience and laziness as a priority 
above the rules adhered to by the list.

>A much kinder list member sent me a message pointing out that list
>conversations follow different guidelines then personal conversations.

That's great, but this is rather self-evident if you've spent any 
time at all using mailing lists.

>I was using my wife as an example that intermingling quotes isn't that
>obvious to everyone.

I understand the point you were trying to make.  But you're wife is 
not the issue here.  Whether she has a problem with in-line quoting 
or not is irrelevent.  The members of this list are.  We all use use 
in-line quoting, so telling us that some one who is not part of this 
community has a problem with it is just a distraction from the debate 
at hand.  If you had stated that *you* were confused by it, then that 
argument may have been more germaine, but I doubt it.

>Now back to my 'can a tool help'. Some mail clients warn you when you
>send a message with no subject. Why not add a similar feature for top
>posting? If there is a List-Id header and there's new text at the top of
>the message, warn the user!

A tool can help, but the you clearly stated that *you* were too lazy 
to simply delete a bunch of text that your obviously inadequate mail 
client placed there.  So the issue was not the technology, but your 
behavior and your explanation of said behavior.  Don't blame the tool 
when the user is at fault.  In this case, the settings of your mail 
client were your choice, no one elses.  If you don't like that 
behavior, then change the client.  But don't try to excuse your 
behavior by blaming a client you chose.

>> Please be nice, and please play nicely with the other children in this sandbox.

>As far as I know I haven't been kicking any sand at anyone. :-)

When someone points out to you that you're doing something wrong, and 
you excuse that behavior by claiming you're lazy, then try to blame the 
technology, then I consider that the moral equivalent of kicking sand 
in our faces.

>Oh, your .sig is 2 lines over *guideline* recommendations (I'm referring
>to your later message).

I see the emphasis on "guideline", which means it's recommended, but 
not written in stone.  If the rest of the community has a problem 
with my sig, I'll change it.  But trying to through netiquette back 
in my face is rather petty, don't you think?
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
--
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