Hi Jim, On 3 Nov 2003 at 17:25, Jim Davis Nature Photography wrote: > Brian van den Broek <bvande@po-box.mcgill.ca> wrote/replied to: > > >But I don't get the stance against top posting. You intimate that the > >net savvy folks settled the issue in the same way as there is an > >informed community consensus about HTML. There isn't; > > I guess you haven't read the list rules then. See, we don't need HTML, > we just put up with a certain amount of it. Sometimes though some > people need to be reminded of the rules, there ya go. I did read the list rules when first I joined, but like everybody on more than a few lists have had to be guided by common sense since. With my denial that there was a community consensus I didn't mean to refer to the PF community specifically, but the internet community at large. I'm on lists where people will occasionally decry the evils of bottom posting, too. > See, when you get to the bottom of what I am writing now, you'll know > it, you're at the bottom. You don't have to scroll and scroll to make > sure. I usually end with a signature to add some definite end. Me too. Particularly when interspersing. It does annoy me when others don't as well. My solution is simply not to worry if I've missed some nugget further down. Sure the secret to successful living may thus have eluded me, but the possibility doesn't keep me up nights! > >But this is all coming from one of the last 4 people alive who know > >how to type '<SNIP>' ;-) > > Actually I don't always write snip. I feel no need to say I've not > presented the material in it's orginal entirety. I feel a <SNIP> is a > bit of a reminder to a person who hasn't snipped. Even crude plain > text email programs put quoted marks at the beginning of each line, so > everyone know's what's quoted, right? > > Not to mention threads are kept together and you need only jump up a > message or two to see the entire previous messages. > > If you think you have a valid reason that <SNIP> with or without the > html brackets must be included by netiquette, please tell me, I don't > know everything. </SNIP> No, <SNIP> isn't mandatory. I used it in the last to illustrate an easy way to top post without quoting every last darn thing. Interspersed quoting and new text already makes the cutting clear, so in a reply like yours, <SNIP>'s are indeed a bit redundant. I do use them fairly often though, and wish more people would. Perhaps it is driven by my being on a number of specialized academic lists, but <SNIP>'s are like ellipsis marks, and without them, you can sometimes present something radically out of context without indication that you've done so. Also, since lots of people don't archive all of their email, and others use readers without threading capabilities, making it explicit that you've omitted stuff strikes me as polite. But its not one that I am going to scream about. So, I might be up for further to snip or not to snip talk, but perhaps we've wandered a bit. You're much more active on the list, so I will leave it to you to decide the channel for any reply. Best, Brian van den Broek brian.van_den_broek@mail.mcgill.ca
