Notice the top post...

This whole debate reminds me of the ****wit who years ago told me my long
email was a waste of precious net bandwidth, and merited some form of
corporal punishment. There's nothing like righteous indignation on trivial
matters to make one wonder how some people's brains actually work.

USENET is free. It's a nice way to share thoughts on topics of common
interest. If you don't like the way a particular post looks, DON"T READ
IT!!!

"mike regish" wrote in message
news:l4ouc.19595$eY2.15166@attbi_s02...
Ok. I'm going to break my promise to myself again because I'm just
overwhelmingly curious about this.

I've stated a reason why top posting is a personal preference of mine. But
the argument against top posting seems to be primarily one of etiquette-or
netiquette. To me this is like saying that it's not proper etiquette to
fly
a high wing plane (or low wing depending on what you fly). I read them
all-top or bottom. I just prefer top. I prefer a high wing because I like
to
look down and I like to take pictures. I have absolutely nothing against
people who fly low wings. I'm sure they have their reasons for that
particular preference. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. I
prefer top posting because I like to go from message to message with the
arrow keys rather than the mouse when I can. Normal etiquette has to do
with
things like where the forks and knives go in a dinner setting. I can find
them as long as they're somewhere on the table. I don't care where you put
them, but in formal setting there is a "right" side and a "wrong" side,
according to etiquette. Again, I'm not going to stop patronizing a
restaurant because they had the audacity to put the silverware in the
wrong
spots. I can see where the snootier patrons might somehow be offended and
refuse to go there anymore, or complain to the server or manager or
something equally petty. I just don't consider it, or myself, to be that
important. What IS bad netiquette-and I can see the reason why, even
though
I'm guilty of it right now-is posting off topic. Yet, ironically, the one
who started the off topic posting is the one complaining about netiquette.
Also, by implying that top posters are lazy, he's indirectly confirmed
that
top posting is easier.

I also preferred the way I could sort threads with Netscape, but that
software has caused problems with my computer, so I removed it and deal
with
some minor inconveniences in OE, but that also seems to somehow be a
violation of etiquette, or just some reason to make me somehow inferior to
those who use other readers.

I don't mean to prolong this thread, but I'm really trying to understand
how
anybody can get their panties in such a bunch over something so trivial
and
so much a matter of personal preference.

And if my plane wasn't getting its annual right now, I wouldn't even be
participating in this NG because of these types of arguments or
debates-both, I guess since some is debate and some is just argumentative.

If you prefer bottom posting, by all means go right ahead. I prefer
sending
and receiving top posts, unless I'm responding to particular pieces of a
post, in which case I post my response below each particular piece. On
most
posts I can rather easily tell what's being responded to, but if there's
any
confusion I know I can scroll down to clear it up.

I also don't mind some people not trimming their posts as I don't always
get
the original post if I come in late. Then I look for a post that hasn't
been
snipped to get caught up. And they certainly don't seem to take up any
more
time or space than snipped posts. I wouldn't want them all like that, but
I
find a few to be helpful. Yet that is almost a capital crime to some
folks.

Is there an Emily Post of the internet? If so, does she have a rationale
for
all the rules of netiquette? Are some arbitrary? Traditional? Practical?

I don't really NEED to know. Just trying to make sense of something that
seems to me to be pure nonsense coming from otherwise very sensible
people.

mike regish



"Martin Hotze" wrote in message
...

On Sun, 30 May 2004 00:31:14 GMT, wrote:

I HATE scrolling down to read the latest...

it is a free world.
do whatever you want but don't start crying when top posters are not
read
by bottom posters (and vice versa).
you have the right to post, but nobody has the duty to read the
postings.