[Scmail] Re: Spamcop down?

[Mike Easter]

Alan Brown wrote:
> Mike Easter wrote:

>> The reason top posting communicates so poorly is because it destroys
>> the context,

> However, the reality of today's world is that email is more important
> for communication than Usenet.

Perhaps you see the world thru' corporate eyes or something.  Personally
I correspond a hundred times as much on usenet as by email.   Your eyes
aren't any 'better' or more accurate than mine, just different.

When we talk about communicating as a 'distributed discussion system' we
are comparing such as BBS, webforum, mailing lists, and googlegrouping.
BBSing is still alive via telnet instead of dialup now.

> It is rare in the corporate world to
> find anyone bottom posting in an email chain.

I understand and accept that.  It is very common for corporate emailing
to *require* that all communicants post TOFU 'textover, fullquote
under'.  There is some value in email retaining all of what was said
before 'unblemished'.  But in newsgroups the corporate TOFU doesn't work
and is unacceptable.  There is also a big problem with newsgroup 'bottom
posting' noncontextualized and untrimmed.


> While I would agree with you that top posting in Usenet is
> inappropriate,

Let us emphasize that we completely agree on that.

I was using the example of topposting as an element of a 'factor' which
adversely affects the quality of communication.  The purpose of my
mention of topposting was not to stir up a war about it, because almost
everyone here agrees that it has no place in newsgroup posting.



-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin