[maemo-community] Mailing List posting netiquette

[From: Randall Arnold]

> ----- Original message ----- 
> From: "Tim Samoff" <tim at samoff.com>
> To: "List for community development" <maemo-community at maemo.org>
> Subject: Re: Mailing List posting netiquette
> Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:53:17 -0500

> 
> Sebastian 'CrashandDie' Lauwers wrote:
> > Because most people are lazy, and the same as with "t3xt msging",
> > people don't respect the people they're communicating with enough to
> > spend a few seconds editing their emails for basic readability.
> 
> Actually, I don't think top-posting is "laziness" per se... With the
> advent of blogging (and Microsoft Exchange), most people who have only
> been using computers since the late 90s are _used_ to the most current
> content being on top.
> 
> Tim
> 

There's even more to it than that.  I have been involved in mailing lists that had different netiquette protocols than those Kees insists upon, so it isn't so black and white.  Obviously various contexts come into play (such as open vs closed source activities).  I don't mind adapting to the norm of the milieu I find myself in, but old habits die hard.

In addition, some of us are used to corporate email environs where despicable things like html are not only allowed but *encouraged*, because text formatting (amazingly enough) can provide value and it's better than RTF or other formats.

So to insult conversants and ascribe bad motives to them is a bit disingenuous.  Finally, in the end, all of this is opinion-- it becomes rule by virtue of critical mass but again that's highly contextual.  Ce la vie, ce la guerre.

Randy the troublemaker

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