[pmmail-list] Re: HTML formatting in PMMail (Netiquette for sure now)

[Dave Hathaway]

--- Ronny Hippler <r11roadster@yahoo.com> wrote:
> And lets not forget Top posting!

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "top posting"?  Posting replies
above the quoted text?

Ahhhh... found it in the jargon file as "top-post":

http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/top-post.html

[quoting]

top-post n. v. 

[common] To put the original portion of an email or Usenet response
before the quoted part, as opposed to the more logical sequence of
quoted portion first with original following. This term is generally
used pejoratively with the implication that the offending person is a
newbie, a Microsoft addict (Microsoft mail tools produce a similar
format by default), or a garden-variety idiot. One major problem with
top-posting is that people who do it all too frequently quote the
entire parent message rather than trimming it down to those portions
relevent to their reply - this makes threads bulky and unnecessarily
difficult to read and arouses the righteous ire of experienced
Internet residents (this style is called "TOFU" for "text over,
fullquote under, or sometimes "jeopardy-style quotting"). Another
problem is that top-posters often word their replies on the
assumption that you just read the previous message, even though their
perversity has put it further down the page than you have yet read.
Oppose bottom-post.

[/quoting]

This definition is quite perjorative, isn't it?

Yes, I have been known to top-post.  This is frequently the case when
I am on an HTML-infested list where the norm is to quote EVERY
previous quote in its entirety.  I top-post (as do most others on
that list) because otherwise you would have to scroll down endless
pages of broken HTML to reach actual content.  I am not kidding that
they have multiple 64K digests per day, with only 20 or so messages
per digest.

I think the point of nettiquette is similar to ettiquette: you follow
the social norms for the current surroundings.  What is considered
obscene for some (HTML mail, top-posting) is the norm in some
communities and should be observed.  To dogmatically enforce
different Laws is poor ettiquette, nevermind what conventional
nettiquette says.

(off topic: now that I again have a POP access account, how do I
change my list address to use that account instead of Yahoo?)

Dave


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