[tlug] top posting, html, consideration

[Scott Robbins <scottro@??>]

Ok, this is getting out of hand again.

Shannon, do you realize how much more of a sympathetic response you
would have gotten had you said that you work with people who require
accessibility, and have experience with it?

Suppose I came into a house with a visually handicapped person and
simply left things on the floor.  Hey, that's the way I like it, I'm
used to it, and I really don't care what others in the house think.  

Or, if I came into the house and said, I'm used to leaving things on the
floor, I'll try not to, and if I do, out of habit, I apologize.  

HTML.  Lyle, even in MS tech mailing lists, HTML mail is frowned upon.
Yes, MS mailers do it by default--unfortunately, most users prefer it,
and many prefer to use Word as their editor.  This is the way of the
world, and nowadays, even text based emailers are able to easily handle
it.  

However, in a way, this list is our house.  Most members are either tech
types or would like to be tech types, and there are certain conventions.

Sometimes, people top post out of lack of knowledge or use HTML because
they don't realize it's the default on their emailer.  However, on this
list, we ask that you don't.  

There are numerous disadvantages to using HTML, and frankly, even the MS
mailers can do spell checking with text only email, and I doubt that the
reader cares if your email has pretty colors, backgrounds (which make it
more difficult for spam filters to tell what is spam and what is simply
a background .gif) etc.  However, most of the world uses MS, and most of
the world doesn't know, or want to know why they shouldn't.  They just
wonder why the spam filter blocked legit mail and let spam through.  

So if you like to top post, that's fine.  However, please don't do it
here.  A discussion of why it's more convenient for the visually
impaired could be interesting, a discussion of one way or the other
being more confrontational becomes confrontational in itself. 

In this particular case (that of top posting) why didn't you state in
the first place that it's more convenient for the visually impaired,
that you have experience with the visually impaired, and so forth?  

One point I frequently make on newcomer oriented Linux lists is that
there is a very selfish reason for not top posting, not hijacking
threads, putting in a good subject line and and not using HTML.  If you
do any of these things, many of the gurus will simply ignore your email,
and therefore, the very people most likely to be able to help you won't
even bother to read your question.

-- 

Scott Robbins

PGP keyID EB3467D6
( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 )
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6

Xander: The band, yeah. They're great. They march. 
Willow: Like an army. Except with music, instead of bullets, and 
usually no one dies.