off-topic, was: Re: [linux-dvb] How to convert DVB video to DVD?

[Q]

"Q: Why is top posting bad?"

It seems fine to me. After all isn't it logical to simply reply after the 
last person to have posted. Aren't the last comments that were made 
'history' by the time you post your own reply?

That is the way it works on forums - it is the way it works when you real 
many mailing list archives (even if this one appears to have it's own 
particular customs) - it is the way it works when I send an email to anyone 
else. You make a statement, someone replies, then you in turn reply to it. 
You don't make a statement, get a reply, repost the entire contents of that 
reply above your next reply - and then send this instead.

TBH there is too much time being spent on this. Really it is just a matter 
of preference. I am perfectly able to follow discussions in the way I have 
described with no difficulty at all.

And why shouldn't my preference (or anyone else's) be just as valid as 
yours? The only time it might be relevant is if you are quoting text (as I 
did above) and even in English grammar, you don't always respond by 
requoting everything a commentator says before making your own comment.

Anyway as I said, it seems (and probably is) a pretty random preference.

An example of this is that a previous poster posted approximately 10 lines 
of interesting things to say before I had anything relevant to say in 
return.

It looked plumb weird and inefficient making everyone read through 10 lines 
of comments that they had already read in his original post before being 
able to read my reply. (Given that all 10 lines were relevant to the single 
reply I gave).

When rules don't make any sense you should certainly disobey (or better 
still ignore) them.

As I have said previously no one's head is going to explode just because I 
may prefer to lay my text out in a way that is different to what others 
might prefer. There is no law set in stone anywhere that says your 
preference is better than mine. The only thing that is bad is having rules 
like this set in stone - because that is not how language works - and will 
generally always lead to nonsensical scenarios - of the type that both you 
and I have alluded to.

"Top posting" (which I would suggest is nothing more than a figment of your 
imagination) can often be just as useful as 'bottom posting.

Anyway I will be unsubribing shortly, so you can continue this 'debate' 
among yourselves.

GJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christophe Thommeret" <hftom at free.fr>
To: <linux-dvb at linuxtv.org>
Cc: "Q" <raid517 at ukonline.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 12:05 AM
Subject: Re: off-topic, was: Re: [linux-dvb] How to convert DVB video to 
DVD?


Le Mardi 22 Novembre 2005 00:54, Q a écrit :

> Sorry if this is top posting - but it seems silly to me to have to wade 
> all
> the way through a previous poster's text before reading the reply.
>
> In fact it seems to me that if there is a 'rule' that it is completely the
> wrong way round.

A: Because it breaks the logical sequence of discussion.
Q: Why is top posting bad?


-- 
Christophe Thommeret