Re: signature placement is dumb

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No flame-war, I promise :) Not from me, anyway.

"Etiquette" is only relevant to the group that creates it. For example, in
the USA, people greet by shaking hands. In other societies, people greet
with a kiss on the cheek.

While you and your peers may think it polite to bottom-post, not all user
groups agree with that. Many of us consider it IMpolite to bottom-post, as
it is confusing, and a hassle for us to read your messages. An RFC, ideal,
or whatever written by one group really means absolutely nothing to another
group. You cannot make the mistake of treating EVERYONE who uses the
internet as being the same "type" of user as yourself... there are many
"types". I'm not trying to discriminate against any "group", just realize
that there are different groups of internet users that behave in different
ways. This may be hard for people to understand, but one person's view of
etiquette is not necessarily another's view.

The RFC you referred to wasn't written by the average internet user. It
wasn't written by any "society". The real here "RFC" isn't something on
paper, it's the way the majority of people feel/act. Like you said, that is
"...what etiquette is supposed to be: The rules put together by society on
how to behave...". Bill Gates isn't a society. Neither is Jacob Neilsen. Nor
are faqs.org or www.caliburn.nl.


All Jacob N's article (item #5) says is "Write short. J. K. Rowling is not a
good role model for email writers." That hardly proves or disproves anything
we're discussing. It simply means that we should cut out extraneous
information...


....And there's the beauty of top-posting... with top posting, you don't NEED
to edit anything out. It's effectively "edited out" for you (automatically)
by the simple fact that all of the "old" text is PLACED BELOW the new stuff.
When the reader opens a top-posted email, they...

1st: read the NEW relevant information (aka the reply)
2nd: come to the signature line, which signifies the end of the new
information
3rd: they then have the OPTION of reviewing any/all of the previous
information as needed

Readers can clearly see the delineation between the new info and the old,
from the placement of the signature and by the indented "old" text.


This, of course, leads to the inherent FLAW of bottom-posting... people's
tendency to be "lazy" and *NOT* edit out all of the extraneous info when
bottom-posting. While YOU seem to be very good at weeding out the junk, most
are not (especially common users). While the IDEA of bottom-posting may be
good, the implementation of it is not, because it requires users to take an
extra step (bad usability).


Simply put, top posting is perfect for most common users. Bottom posting
seems to be perfect for more technical users like yourself. I happen to be
part of the in-between generation I guess. I'm a technical person in a
technical career, but I prefer top posting. Many of us in my age group are
like this :)


I have no problems with anyone's opinions, so I'm not flaming you in any way
at all. I guess I'm just sick of hearing "techie-type" people trying to
dictate to the layman on how they "should" be doing something. That's just
nonsense.






.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: signature placement is dumb
    ... Bottom-Posting Gang or something? ... The RFC is designed for etiquette and making messages easier to read. ... Maybe it wasn't put together by an "average Internet user", ... > ...And there's the beauty of top-posting... ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage)
  • Re: Top posting vs Bottom posting
    ... previous posts just to see if the reply is relevant. ... The problem isn't bottom-posting, it's... ... a message saying along the lines of "bottom posting is the preferred ... To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ...
    (Debian-User)
  • RE: Why do people detest top posting so much?
    ... Bottom-posting is actually a creation of us old fart newsgroup readers. ... I never liked it and never will, but I do it to keep the posting police ... distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. ...
    (Ubuntu)
  • Re: PPC Registry
    ... In article, Clinton Fitch, Clinton ... there is no "rule" for top or bottom posting. ... The RFC is informal, meaning that bottom-posting is not *the* standard, ... M$ bears a lot of the blame for the proliferation of top-posting by ...
    (microsoft.public.pocketpc)
  • Re: Not vbasic related post but related to the posting in forum
    ... Hi, how are you i'm doing fine thx, yeah me too, what are you doing today? ... top-posting or in-line posting are the appropriate methods. ... Bottom-posting is just plain wrong! ... tends to preserve the sequence in better order making it easier to follow ...
    (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)