Forgotten where to access the Red Hat forums

[Rick Stevens]

Jeff Kinz wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 11, 2004 at 01:59:37AM +0000, jlopes151 at comcast.net wrote:
> 
>>So, explain what your saying here?
>>
>>
>>>By the way, bottom-posting is preferred on most of the Red Hat forums 
> 
> 
> Rick is saying that you are using the wrong format for replying to an 
> email list.
> 
> Instead of putting your further responses at the top of the email, where
> it is out of order, delete the no longer needed bits of the email and
> place your responses after the points you are responding to.
> 
> This is covered by the Internet Engineering Task Force, which is the
> group responsible for the "how to do it" of the internet.
> Please see this document, under the section "one to many communication":
> http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html
> 
> 
> 
> Also - to fix outlook or outlook express so that these things can be
> done automatically for you:
> 
> To fix outlook express:
> http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
> 
> To fix Outlook:
> http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/outlook-quotefix/
> 
> 
> 20 years ago I thought topposting was better too, but after seeing the
> logic presented on why bottom or interleaved posting is better for email
> list postings and usenet posting I had to agree that bottom posting is a
> "Good Thing"(TM).
> 
> For person to person email top posting is fine, in fact it is often
> better because the two people involved remain familiar with the issue at
> hand.
> 
> However, when posting to an email list you are "conversing" with
> hundreds of other people who, while they are actively following your
> thread, they are also actively following many other threads and
> therefore cannot remain intimately familiar with the issues in your
> thread. Top posting forces the many to hunt up and down in the email to
> find the points being referred to so they can follow the flow of the
> logic in the "conversation".
> 
> So, your lack of effort is multiplied and transferred to many many other
> people who really shouldn't have to make up for your lack of effort.
> 
> Bottom posting and interleaving on email lists are a simple matter of
> courtesy for your fellow list members. Not doing it shows a distinct
> lack of regard for their time, effort and value.
> 
> When having a person to person email dialog, top posting is fine.

Eleganly put, Jeff.  Thanks.  I'm going to have you write my next letter
to the IRS.  ;-)

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
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