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[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 11:08:57PM -0400, Chris Brennan wrote:
> * Damien Fleuriot <ml at my.gd> [2011-06-23 03:56:54 +0200]:
> 
> > On 23 Jun 2011, at 01:02, George Kontostanos <gkontos.mail at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > Look, I think that this is getting personal and not constructive at all.
> > > Stop mumbling unless you have something useful to add.
> > > 
> > 
> > How about you do what he says and stop top posting, as per the list's policy ?
> > 
> > Annoying pretty much everyone in the list with your stubbornness about 
> > top posting and your misplaced rudeness towards a helper might result 
> > in a drop in the number of people willing to spend time helping you.
> 
> This will be my last post on this topic. George you are rude and I know 
> I will not be offering any more suggestions for you. I foresee few 
> others willing to help you now as well. Jeremy has willingly given you a 
> great amount of detail to work with and it's up to him to look past your 
> rude behavior and continue to help you.

<off-topic>
The difference is that I really don't care if people top-post,
bottom-post, or respond in-line.  I work with whatever I'm presented
with.

I personally use all 3 methods depending upon the context is and what
mailing list rules allow/permit.  But it varies per list, and some lists
have zealots that absolutely despise top-posting (even if the list
permits it).

I fully acknowledge that the FreeBSD lists advocate and insist upon
in-line or bottom-post replies, and I honour that -- as should George.

But let's be reasonable: there's a problem at hand that George is
needing help with.  The last thing a person under duress (re: in a
situation like this) needs is to be lectured about "not confirming to
mailing list style".  I say this knowing that conforming to said list
style is important, however.

I tend to keep my "style conformity" requests very terse and mentioned
as one-liners at the bottom of the mail, e.g. "P.S. -- Folks here don't
like top-posting, please try to avoid it if you can, thanks!".
Otherwise all it does is irritate an already-irritated person who's in
need of assistance.  Remember: they took the time to ask for help, which
in this day and age is practically a miracle.
</off-topic>

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                   Mountain View, CA, US |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.               PGP 4BD6C0CB |