On Mar 6, 2009, at 8:48 PM, Paul E Condon wrote:
Top posting in response to a top post is etiquette. Gloating over the fact that fellow human being is put-off by your behavior is not. Top posting because your email software is incapable of doing otherwise is somewhat like being a child with 'special needs'. The rest of us should be grown up enough to accept you as you are. Personally, I would like not to impose on the good nature of others, except of course to avoid embarrassing a person with 'special needs.' One absolute rule of modern etiquette, as I understand it, is that one NEVER enquire as to whether one's interlocutor is a person with 'special needs'.
This gives cause to think, and I'm not "going after" anyone in particular (and that includes Paul). If it breaks etiquette to top post, how seriously does it break etiquette to complain about top posting, in public, in front of everyone, instead of writing a polite email to the top poster in private?
If it's about etiquette, then wouldn't that almost demand that those who find top posting inappropriate kindly pass on the information to the offending party in private? Or has it suddenly become okay to dress people down for their transgressions in a public forum?
Top posting, other than maybe a quick "Thank you, it works now!" may be incorrect in terms of etiquette, but then it seems to me, dealing with that in public, when one knows that on a list like this it'll spark a debate that will only draw more attention to the post and person in error, would be even worse than the original sin of top posting.
Hal(Who thought all the discussions like this would disappear after Lenny came out...)