[LAU] Posting style (was: Re: Autotuner for Linux?)

[Rick Green]

On Thu, 12 Nov 2009, Jorge Salgueiro wrote:

> Top post is a question of accesibility to the blind. They shouldn't have to
> listen to 30 posts every time they want to contribute.

   That's a matter of trimming more than top-posting, although I think it 
would drive me crazy if I had to use a reader, where I have to listen to 
the answer before I hear the line which gives it context

   Maybe I'm stereotyping here, but it appears to me that top-posters are 
less likely to trim the email to the one line that provides context for 
their reply.  I see one-line messages, followed by 100k+ of the entire 
message thread, which is wasteful of bandwidth, as well as the treasury of 
those who pay by the dialup minute or MB transferred.

I've worked in a company whose culture was to *always* top post *without* 
trimming.  The rationale was to maintain the entire cumulative 
conversation in every email.  Annoying, but if the boss wants to pay for 
the local bandwidth and server space fine.  But totally inconsiderate of 
the time and pocketbook of the recipient when conversing on a more public 
forum like this one.

   I don't use one, but I've been told that there are popular email clients 
running on an OS that I don't run, that don't allow the user to trim. 
They simply have a switch "Include message in reply", which if enabled, 
silently and invisibly appends the message (sometimes with full headers!) 
to whatever they type in the composer.  My opinion of the programmers and 
publishers of such software is not fit for a polite forum such as this.

-- 
Rick Green

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
                                   -Benjamin Franklin

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our
safety and our ideals."
                                -President Barack Obama 20 Jan 2009