[boost] What's wrong with top-posting?

[Brian Wood via Boost]

At Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:09:43 -0800,

I thought I was familiar with the guidelines and never remembered this.
I top-post all the time. It seems much more natural to me when
it's not convenient to intersperse comments into the previous
a) It means that I don't have to scroll to the bottom of a message
which is sometimes pretty long.
b) To me it is more natural to follow the style
of other communications (artilcle, books, etc) which make
their point in the main text and refer to footnotes, bibliographies,
etc at the end of the main text.

c) You don't confuse or even *upset* (as I've discovered the hard way)
many people in the business world, where top-posting and
overquoting is the accepted standard. Every message drags along
the entire thread history with it, and you keep a record of
everything by storing the final message. (yuck) It's a cultural
thing, and Boost fits into the open-source programmer weenie
culture much more than the business culture.

I was getting annoyed by some top-posting here recently,
so I dug up this thread.

Is an "open-source programmer weenie culture" like a nerdy
culture?

Anyway, please stop top posting and trim the old parts of
the thread that are no longer needed.


Brian
Ebenezer Enterprises - In G-d we trust.
http://webEbenezer.net

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[Paul A. Bristow via Boost]

-----Original Message-----
Sent: 25 June 2017 23:31
To: boost
Cc: Brian Wood
Subject: Re: [boost] What's wrong with top-posting?

At Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:09:43 -0800,

I thought I was familiar with the guidelines and never remembered this.
I top-post all the time. It seems much more natural to me when
it's not convenient to intersperse comments into the previous
a) It means that I don't have to scroll to the bottom of a message
which is sometimes pretty long.
b) To me it is more natural to follow the style
of other communications (artilcle, books, etc) which make
their point in the main text and refer to footnotes, bibliographies,
etc at the end of the main text.

c) You don't confuse or even *upset* (as I've discovered the hard way)
many people in the business world, where top-posting and
overquoting is the accepted standard. Every message drags along
the entire thread history with it, and you keep a record of
everything by storing the final message. (yuck) It's a cultural
thing, and Boost fits into the open-source programmer weenie
culture much more than the business culture.

I was getting annoyed by some top-posting here recently,
so I dug up this thread.
Is an "open-source programmer weenie culture" like a nerdy
culture?

No - it's the original and traditional - or it was, before Microsoft unilaterally used their muscle to break with tradition and make
top posting the 'Standard' in all Windows mailers. (The cursor for replying is placed at the top of the page, not the bottom).

There are pros and cons to both top and bottom posting, but like most endian-type arguments, there are NO pros to a *mixture* of top
and bottom posting.

Boost has always bottom posted and I don't see any good reason to change.

You can always see the full discussions on sites like Nabble.

Paul

PS It is also traditional to stick to plain text - usable by everyone and no risk of nasties hidden in HTML.

---
Paul A. Bristow
Prizet Farmhouse
Kendal UK LA8 8AB
[phone]







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[Robert Ramey via Boost]

On 6/26/17 6:46 AM, Paul A. Bristow via Boost wrote:

Boost has always bottom posted and I don't see any good reason to change.

Post by Paul A. Bristow via Boost
You can always see the full discussions on sites like Nabble.
Paul
PS It is also traditional to stick to plain text - usable by everyone and no risk of nasties hidden in HTML.

The only thing I might mention is that we used to bug people more about
over quoting. I think that bottom posting works better when poster
snips out parts of the quote that are not relevant to his comments.
FWIW David Abrahams was the chief overquoting nanny.

Robert Ramey

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[Christof Donat via Boost]

Hi,

Post by Paul A. Bristow via Boost
There are pros and cons to both top and bottom posting, but like most
endian-type arguments, there are NO pros to a *mixture* of top
and bottom posting.

There is a comprehensive discussion of quotation styles in german on
this webpage, which is a default place to point people to in the german
speaking area:

http://einklich.net/usenet/zitier.htm

I don't know, if any automatic translation is able to transport the
content good enough to any other language. Anyway, the author comes to
the conclusion, that shortened inline quotes is the most reasonable and
easy to use one for the reader. That is exactly the style, that has
always been standard on the boost mailing lists as well as on many
others.

Christof

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