On 28/11/2020 06.12, Neal Gompa wrote:
Hey all,
We seem to have a problem on the openSUSE mailing list of shaming people and assuming ill intent. This is exemplified by the following thread excerpt:
Well, that has been clarified by the people involved that it is not the case. Thus I will not go there. :-) ...
The problem with this is threefold:
1. You are deliberately shaming someone publicly 2. You are piling on the shame by reinforcing it 3. You are assuming that people cannot learn any other way (or ill intent)
None of this is actually *helpful*. And I would wager to say that the majority of folks just flat out don't really care if it's top posted or bottom posted. I personally don't. My email client collapses the quotes the same regardless.
I do care, a lot. First, none of my clients collapse the quoted material. Second, you (not meaning thou specifically) are sending kilobytes of repeated material the world wide, when it is possible that some of the receivers have to pay to receive it, either by the megabyte, or per minute of connection (I know for certain this is true). And third, it is archived by many computers, using more redundant resources. It does matter. The issue for me is not that much if it is above or below, top or bottom, but its size. The not trimming that is implied by top posting. The sending of 3 kilobytes of material with a 15 kilobyte quote. And the problem is, if clients collapse that excess repeated material, that you are simply not aware of the problem. ...
Please reconsider the next time you think about doing it. And consider how *you* would feel if someone did it to you.
I was told once, many years ago, to not top post. I understood the issue and I changed my behaviour ;-) However, if you can suggest a kind way of telling people to not post, I'll listen. When I do it, my response is fuelled by the size of the quotes. I try to answer the question, then comment on the quote issue. A 20 kilobyte quote makes me "less kind". An 80 Kb quote much less so (like when replying to "New Tumbleweed snapshot"). If you think that people in this list is not kind, you should peruse other communications taking place on other distributions, where people are directly insulted for making silly questions. We are a model for helpfulness. We truly are. Hey, have a look at Linus responses! ;-p -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.1 x86_64 at Telcontar)