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[OT] Top posting is a PITA [was : Prothon Prototypes vs Python Classes]

Ed Cogburn edcogburn at hotpop.com
Thu Apr 1 06:46:13 EST 2004 
R Baumann wrote:
> one follows the "standard" of the newsgroup one is participating in.


No such thing, since there is no way to enforce these "standards", and the 
bottom-posters will always bottom post, and the top-posters will always top 
post no matter where they are.


> Complaining whether one top posts or bottom posts is just a waste of
> time, and you, me, we, all know it.


Not always, sure there are the smart asses who top-post just to annoy people, 
but a lot of top-posters do that because they are newbies and don't know that 
it annoys so many people.  Often they just need to find out how to change 
their reader program's default, or simply discover that their reader does have 
such an option.


> this is more irritating than whether one is "posting in the approved manner".


No it isn't, as long as someone sticks "OT" in the subject line, I don't mind 
anyone talking about something else.  If its identified as off topic, I can 
always skip it.  Top-posting on the other hand, is annoying because its 
unnatural for most of us.  Most of us may not say anything, and most of the 
time its not "serious", but IMO, top-posting is far more irritating then OT posts.


> This thread was renamed to a different subject, but that was a
> half-dozen rants later in the thread than it needed to be.


Why complain about this when you're obviously still participating in this 
thread two *dozen* posts after "OT" was inserted?


> Get my point?  Naw, too much to expect.  I've wasted both your time and my
> time with my own rant against your rants. :-)


Yep, everyone has their pet peeve, but isn't it kinda obvious by now that 
there are a *lot* more people peeved about top-posting than there are peeved 
at OT posts.  :)


> A lot of you guys seem far more interested in starting arguments and keeping
> them running, than you are discussing the pros and cons of Python and
> providing helpful answers.  Rein in your egos, no one, and I include myself,
> has anything helpful to contribute in this kind of  "dust-up".


I've seen this complaint a thousand times too, and it never makes a 
difference.  You're basically asking people to stop being human, which is why 
we designated "OT" as a warning for others that the conversation has drifted 
far afield.  However, we never did adopt "TP" so top-posters could warn 
others, mainly because top-posting is not seen as inevitable, irresistible 
human behavior, it is of course simply an example of laziness (or ignorance), 
nothing more.  While laziness is inevitable in some humans, its still not 
accepted behavior.  People arguing with one another is perfectly natural, and 
has been going on for millenia, but for most of the world, its written 
conversations are done top-to-bottom, not bottom-to-top.
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