Top Post vs Bottom Post (was: Fedora-18 -- how to install?)

Alejandro Imass aimass-EzYyMjUkBrFWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org
Wed Mar 6 14:46:38 UTC 2013


On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 9:58 PM, Ansar Mohammed <ansarm-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> That's just your view of etiquette,  I'm afraid. It's diametrically opposed
> to the vast majority of the internet users on the planet. My view is that

It may be true in the Windoze business world but on almost every
single Unix and Linux mailing list is quite the opposite. It actually
does depend on the context. Email is used in many different contexts
and on mailing lists there are certain expectations given the topic at
hand. Some lists prohibit top-posting and remove members after the
first warning, some don't seem to care.

> you don't call a complete stranger "lazy" or "idiots" because they have a
> different point of view. I guess I am not as "cultured" as the rest of you.
>

That is precisely the point here. It is in fact expected of you to
understand the context and the general culture of any mailing you are
posting to. Actually, this holds true for any human group, not just
mailing lists (e.g. you don't sit on the Yankee stadium playing the
Red Sox, on the Yankee side with a Red Sox shirt. IMO this what using
Outlook as an argument here sounds like).

In Linux, Unix and many, many technical lists (I would say the
majority I've participated in), the expectation is that you are at
least familiar with the "Netiquette Guidelines" RFC1855
(http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt) and the more colloquial "How To
Ask Questions The Smart Way" written and mainatined by Eric Raymond at
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Everyone has had their share of this "rudeness"
(http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#keepcool) on
technical lists and I surely had my share when I started with Linux
and Open Source back in 1998. It's not personal, that's just the way
it is.

Cheers!

-- 
Alejandro Imass
--
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