OT: Top Posting Vs. Bottom Posting: Case Closed!

[Helen]

Thanks to you and to Al for the answer. I asked because it
occasionally comes up in news.software.readers, and there aren't
many Agent users there, since you have your own newsgroup.


Yeah, it does, so the user can just start typing if s/he wants to
top-post.

Buuut, all you have to do is to NOT start typing THERE, but instead
CHOOSE to go to the end of the comment you want to respond to
(as here for demonstration) and start typing THERE, or in the alternative,
CHOOSE to go to t he end of the post THEN start typing.

Or just click "do not include post" and then you have a blank screen in
which to type on - without any of the OP's comments. So actually, it's
no big deal to NOT top post when using OE.

 

[hopflop]

If no text is highlighted, the entire post is quoted, and the cursor
starts out right before the first > character.

Right before? Not right after the first "> " like my Xnews does?

 

[badgolferman]

"your" and "you're"

 

[John Jay Smith]

Yes but we LIKE top posting...
Shoot!
I should have posted the study about bottom posting done with the chimps!

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBQ=AB?=]

Right before? Not right after the first "> " like my Xnews does?

Ah, you're right.

 

[Helen]

Yes but we LIKE top posting...
Shoot!
I should have posted the study about bottom posting done with the chimps!

Actually, that's the way the messages arrive too. For example if you are on a
photo ng, and the poster posts a series, the first post with an explanation/description
or the index of the photos will be at the bottom when you open OE. So if there is
a series of photos and you want to view them in order, then you must scroll down
to the last listed post in that series (e.g., it may be numbered 01/12). I don't have
a problem with it either way, but whatever. I've been known to post top and bottom.
I depends on the ng and what the "norm" is. In one group I subscribe to, nearly
everyone top posts. Whatever, it isn't worth arguing over. Post on! Except for spammers.

Helen

 

[Marten Kemp]

Mine are "affect" and "effect." Seems like about 75% of people don't know
the correct usage of these words.

"How is it going to effect me?" Incorrect.
"How is it going to affect me?" Correct.

"That's going to have a bad affect on me." Incorrect.
"That's going to have a bad effect on me." Correct.

Apostrophe abuse, homonym confustion (their/they're/there,
your/you're, breech/breach,etc.), "then" instead of "than",
and the growing-ever-more-popular "loose" instead of "lose".

Plus the classic "it's/its".

An occasional error is one thing (this *is* an informal
medium, after all), but this grit in the gears of good
communication is inflicted upon us with such frequency
that I despair. Such marginal literacy, to my admittely
jaundiced eye, is an indicator of a lack of intellectual
ability which, when observed in that segment of the
population which is possessed of at least sufficient Clue
to post on Usenet, presages the descent of our society
into a morass of wishful thinking, willful ignorance and
belief in astrology.

Just my two zorkmids' worth, of course.

--
-- Marten Kemp
(Fix name and ISP to reply)
-=-=-
.... Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going
to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they never
existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read
every book... -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
* TagZilla 0.059 * http://tagzilla.mozdev.org

 

[Daniel Mandic]

Actually, that's the way the messages arrive too. For example if you
are on a photo ng, and the poster posts a series, the first post with
an explanation/description or the index of the photos will be at the
bottom when you open OE. So if there is a series of photos and you
want to view them in order, then you must scroll down to the last
listed post in that series (e.g., it may be numbered 01/12). I don't
have a problem with it either way, but whatever. I've been known to
post top and bottom. I depends on the ng and what the "norm" is. In
one group I subscribe to, nearly everyone top posts. Whatever, it
isn't worth arguing over. Post on! Except for spammers.

Helen

Hi Helen!



Your posting brought me new thoughts...

Possibly it's good for laters, getting interested in a thread after
some replies. But even that I go back to the first posting to see what
the thread is about.

Although, is it not the standard-etiquette to remove all of the
"quoted"?
News-Readers, even on DOS, give the ability to go back and read older
postings.


Maybe it came from the (Browser) Usenet user!? - Bottom posting.






Kind Regards,

Daniel Mandic

 

[Bill Turner]

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

elaich wrote:

Mine are "affect" and "effect." Seems like about 75% of people don't
know the correct usage of these words.

"How is it going to effect me?" Incorrect.
"How is it going to affect me?" Correct.

"That's going to have a bad affect on me." Incorrect.
"That's going to have a bad effect on me." Correct.

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

Almost always - but not quite 100% - "affect" is a verb and "effect" is
a noun. If you limit your sentence structure to those cases you will
nearly always be right. Using them vice versa makes for a rather
stilted sounding sentence and there are other words which can do the
job anyway.

Bill Turner

 

[Bill Turner]

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Marten Kemp wrote:

when observed in that segment of the
population which is possessed of at least sufficient Clue
to post on Usenet, presages the descent of our society

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

In that usage, "clue" should not be capitalized.

Bill Turner

 

[Marten Kemp]

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:



*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

In that usage, "clue" should not be capitalized.

The usage is derivative of the Hacker's Dictionary and
alt.sysadmin.recovery: originally from "clue-by-four"
(closely related to LART - Luser Attitude Readjustment
Tool), then generalized to mean those qualities a clue-
by-four is intended to impart ("cluons").

*I* prefer to capitalize it and, in the absence of a
definitive reference, shall continue to do so.

--
-- Marten Kemp
(Fix name and ISP to reply)
-=-=-
.... Some people used to claim that, if enough monkeys sat in front
of enough typewriters and typed long enough, eventually one of
them would reproduce the collected works of Shakespeare. The
internet has proven this not to be the case. --David L. Johnson
* TagZilla 0.059 * http://tagzilla.mozdev.org

 

[Bill Turner]

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Marten Kemp wrote:

The usage is derivative of the Hacker's Dictionary and
alt.sysadmin.recovery: originally from "clue-by-four"
(closely related to LART - Luser Attitude Readjustment
Tool), then generalized to mean those qualities a clue-
by-four is intended to impart ("cluons").

*I* prefer to capitalize it and, in the absence of a
definitive reference, shall continue to do so.

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

Way too obscure. 99.999% of your readers will think you an ignoramus.
If you insist on making it a proper noun, you'd better explain the
derivation at the same time. Ever hear of footnotes? Use 'em.

Bill Turner

 

[Marten Kemp]

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:



*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

Way too obscure. 99.999% of your readers will think you an ignoramus.
If you insist on making it a proper noun, you'd better explain the
derivation at the same time. Ever hear of footnotes? Use 'em.

At least 87.3%[0] of my readers, if they lack the perspicacity to know
it before reading my posts, will be able to derive the meaning of
"Clue" from the context in which I use it. The remaining 12.7% are
generally those about whom I was despairing.

All that having been said, with tongue firmly in cheek, your point
is well taken. I shall henceforth capitalize "Clue" only when I have
a reasonable expectation that those before whom I am scattering
pearls[1] of wisdom[2] are in possession of sufficient cluons to
appreciate the usage.

------------------------------------------------------------------
[0] 82.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot, including
this one.
[1] For values of "pearl" ranging from one-line pronouncements
to long expositions.
[2] For values of "wisdom" ranging from the profound to the profane[3].
[3] Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

--
-- Marten Kemp
(Fix name and ISP to reply)
-=-=-
.... There is a dense dimension beyond that which is known to man.
It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity.
It is the middle ground between blight and sagacity, between intelligence
and stupidity, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit
of his knowledge. This is the dimension of insipidness.
It is an area we call the Stupid Customer Zone.
* TagZilla 0.059 * http://tagzilla.mozdev.org

 

[Al Klein]

Buuut, all you have to do is to NOT start typing THERE, but instead
CHOOSE to go to the end of the comment you want to respond to
(as here for demonstration) and start typing THERE, or in the alternative,
CHOOSE to go to t he end of the post THEN start typing.

Or just click "do not include post" and then you have a blank screen in
which to type on - without any of the OP's comments. So actually, it's
no big deal to NOT top post when using OE.

Decisions, decisions. But all that takes *thinking*, Helen, and some
people just aren't up to that. I mean, to actually highlight the top
couple of lines (I can't look now, since the only place I run Outlook
is at the office) *and* the separator line under them? Gee whiz!

 

[Al Klein]

Yes but we LIKE top posting...
Shoot!
I should have posted the study about bottom posting done with the chimps!

Top posting, bottom posting - even a brain-dead chimp would know that
they're both wrong.

 

[Al Klein]

"your" and "you're"

Whose and who's.

 

[bambam]

Whose and who's.

Bloody school teachers, they have far to many holidays.

 

[Peter Seiler]

Daniel Mandic - 24.04.2006 19:24 :

Although, is it not the standard-etiquette to remove all of the
"quoted"?

it depends on what of the preposting paragraphs you are reposting. In
general I would say: remove as much as possible but quote as much as
necessary to understand your reposting as well.

News-Readers, even on DOS, give the ability to go back and read older
postings.

most of the fullquoters IMO are only too lazy to shorten the quotings.
So long and difficult to read bandwidth waisting threads are only the
prob of the readers...not the best usenet understanding and -behavior :-(

Maybe it came from the (Browser) Usenet user!? - Bottom posting.

bottom/between posting.

 

[kapok]

Bloody school teachers, they have far to many holidays.

To and too!. Sorry

 

[Andy Mabbett]

Frankly, I've always thought that top posting makes more sense.

But then, you're utterly clueless in regards to many newsgroup and other
IT issues...