[arch-general] Top Posting Revisited

[C Anthony Risinger]

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 12:15 AM, Rodrigo Amorim Bahiense
<rodbzro at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/16/2011 02:03, Jeffrey Lynn Parke Jr. wrote:
>>
>> I don't really think that people put any conscious thought into if they
>> should top or bottom post. A majority of mail clients and
>> the aforementioned Gmail default to top posting. What I would like to know
>> is why is this the common practice. Obviously, people on forums and
>> mailing
>> lists like everything in the top down, first to last format. This
>> frustrates me. I'll have to look into that greasemonkey plugin.. I am
>> always fighting gmail on this issue.
>
> I believe top posting is common because [average] people don't use e-mails
> to write/read long texts anymore, but rather for chatting.
>
> Actually, nowadays it seems natural that if there is a way people can chat
> through some text message system, they will. I've unfollowed a lot of people
> who apparently thought twitter was just another web messenger.

this topic is a sinkhole, but what you've stated is an individual's
failure to recognize social context, and adjust behavior accordingly.

i mean, people don't act the same way with their own family vs.
meeting their partners for the first time, do they?  or their close
personal friends vs. new business acquaintances? or when traveling
abroad?  or on a first date?  or <insert almost any situation>?

... no, they don't.  the internet allows for obscene levels of
anonymity that simply *cannot* exist in traditional/direct
communication -- permitting illusions of zero responsibility, fault,
repercussion, embarrassment, or humiliation for their activities and
escapades -- and is why trolls and all other forms of internet garbage
exist.

entering a community without competently researching and gratuitously
accepting their established customs/preferences is completely asinine;
entering that community and publicly smearing said customs, followed
by proclamations of your own, is pompously asinine.

it's not uncommon for me to spend hours on a reply/question,
occasionally approaching 4hrs or more, and sometimes spread over
several days, as i aim to be as clear, complete, and useful as
possible to the greatest number of people, on *either* side.  anyone
who does not read to learn and write to teach is > /dev/null.

-- 

C Anthony