[ Erik Christiansen Wrote On Thu 29.Nov'12 at 5:26:49 GMT ] > On 28.11.12 12:16, Derek Martin wrote: > > All methods of judgement are rigid, by their very nature. It is only the > > human element which allows them to be flexible (for example, I knew > > what you meant when you typed "rigit"). Humans have differing > > levels of tolerance; but regardless of the level, when they are > > finally surpassed, violent eruptions (verbal or physical, or both) > > will occur. > > It can be worse than just evidencing irritation at inconsiderately > formatted posts, fullquoting, top posting, lack of proper sentence > structure, html, or other failure to show consideration to the very > readers who are (most often) expected to offer solutions to the poorly > presented problem statement. Some readers just delete an offending post > as soon as it registers as laborious to unravel. > > It seems a pity to miss out on assistance just because one's post too > egregiously reeks of lack of respect for the reader. Exerting all > possible effort to not waste the reader's time helps to win replies, and > conserves the more valuable time of those with answers. Everyone > benefits. > > Reader respect is one currency in which an appellant for help pays the > better informed list members who give their time and intellect to solve > a problem which isn't theirs. The practice has worked well so far for so > many, but it's not so rigid that newcomers can't try their luck, I > think. > > Allowance for non-native English authors is good, in my experience, on a > variety of technical lists. > > Erik
Of course I agree that posts should be set out in a way that aids the reader, and I do always try to keep that in mind when posting to mailinglists especially. I am, however, quite surprised at how angry people get over this, namely what they deem to be unacceptable mail; whether it be formatting, the quoting structure, the content-type, etc. In the scheme of things it's actually fairly trivial. It's certainly not something that should be used to judge someone. You delete someone's mail, or refuse to respond or publicly state they are a certain type of person simply because the didn't trim their quotes properly or they top-posted (which is annoying I grant you) - this thread has really enlightened me in that respect. I suppose what i'm saying is there are more important things in life to worry about than something like this. I think provided people make some sort of effort to conform to the way mailinglist posts should be formatted, and particularly avoid things like html and other horrid MIME stuff, then great. If they don't, well, i'm not going to hate them or not respond to them or worse still just delete their mail. That's simply childish. Or even just ask them in a polite and friendly manner to make more of an effort when posting in the future.
