"Ashley Sheridan" <ash@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1247162816.3514.17.camel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > On Thu, 2009-07-09 at 16:57 +0100, Tony Marston wrote: >> It's stupid because there is no valid reason as to why top posting is >> *bad*. >> It has existed on the internet ever since there was an internet, so >> for >> someone to stand up and say "I don't like this, so I'll make a rule >> agains >> it" it just arrogance on their part. > > Tony, I believe I (among others) mentioned a perfectly valid reason for > *not* top-posting. > > In-case you forgot, I'll go through it again: > > This mailing list is ingested (afaik) in three main ways by people: > > 1. One email per message made to the list > 2. Daily email digests > 3. Web-based list archives You may think they are valid reasons, but I do not. When I first started to post in newsgroups top posting was not only allowed, it was encouraged, and no-one complained. This went on for years, then all of a sudden someone decided that top posting was bad, and made a rule against it. Why should I change the habits of years just because you say so? Whether I post at the top or the bottom DOESN'T REALLY MATTER. It is just another religious war. I think bottom posting is bad because I have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the post in order to read the response, whereas if its at the top I can read it without scrolling. > Now, it might not make too much difference where the posts are if you > are reading the list by the first means. Yeah, it's annoying seeing > emails that are a mix of top and bottom-posting, but it can be dealt > with. > > The second way of reading through the list groups together bunches of > the messages, which is difficult to read if the posting is a mix of top > and bottom. > > The web-based content is even more difficult to follow if the posting > types mix. The fact that there are many different ways of reading newsroups which favour either top or bottom posting just adds to the chaos. My newsreader favours top posting, so that's what I'll stick to. > This list has always used bottom-posting as a convention, because if > everyone sticks to it, the whole thing is made easier to read by both > members and guests reading the list in their browsers. Different newsgroups have different conventions, and I just can't be bothered to switch from one to the other just to satisfy a petty whim. > Someone earlier in the thread mentioned escalators. And I have already pointed out that this was a false analogy. If I stand on the wrong side of the escalator I will block other people, but if I top post I block nobody. Some people may notice I've posted at the top, some may not. Some may think it's bad, some may not. But wherever I post it does not stop them from reading what I wrote. > The convention in > the UK is to stand on the right, and walk on the left. It's different in > the US. Would you try and have an argument with someone on an escalator > because s/he thought you were on the wrong side because you're used to > using a particular side and can't be bothered to go by their > conventions? More and more as you post I find this is actually a likely > scenario, but I'm willing to accept you might not. The thing is, both > these things are general conventions, put in place to benefit others, > which hardly put you out of your way (as I mentioned yesterday, it can > be done in 1-2 seconds) > > Please can you not just keep to the convention used on this list? The > list is not here solely for your benefit, but that of others too. People > often come here knowing little of PHP, and making their lives more > difficult by having threads that follow no logical convention is just > rude and inconsiderate. Top posting does not make life more difficult, it does not make the post unreadable. It is a minor detail of no great consequence, so stop trying to make a federal case out of it. -- Tony Marston http://www.tonymarston.net http://www.radicore.org -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
