Re: Out of order posting (was:: Load 0.20 on a freshly installed idle system)

On Sunday, 22 January 2023 at 17:03:10 +0000, Doug Denault wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Jan 2023, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
>> On Sun, 22 Jan 2023 02:18:00 -0500
>> Paul Procacci <pprocacci@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> As per your last couple of statements; I agree.
>>> I won't however conform for the reasons already given.
>>> If I'm breaking the rules, "punish" me.
>>
>> 	It's not about rules, it's about effective communication,...

Quite so.

>>> The only thing people on this list would lose is the rare and occasional
>>> time I help someone.
>>
>> 	Why is it that some people take advice on effective communication
>> as an attempt to impose rules ?
>
> Etiquette then, if you like that word better.

No, as Steve says, it's a matter of effective communication.  It's
also the impression you make on others.  It would be nice to think
that people had read my reference
(https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/freebsd-questions/), but at the
risk that they haven't, it also states:

  Do not underestimate the effect that a poorly formatted mail message
  has, not just on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list. Your mail
  message is all people see of you, and if it is poorly formatted, one
  line per paragraph, badly spelt, or full of errors, it will give
  people a poor impression of you.

I'm currently trying to unravel another (important) mail thread, one
requiring my input.  4 messages, corresponding to 50 pages of printed
output!  Much is repetition, much is irrelevant, but I have to read
the whole damn thing and decide what's relevant.  It's a pain, one
that the authors could have reduced significantly if they had taken
the trouble.

> Lawyers never delete anything, I guess (as I am not one) it gives a
> history of the entire conversation.

Yes, but once is enough.

> Some of these emails I am asked to comment on might be several
> thousand words long. Do you think bottom posting is best in this
> case?

No, definitely not.  My guess is that these emails are that long
because people didn't follow these guidelines.  And "bottom posting"
is only marginally better than "top posting".  It's not what the
guidelines recommend.  In summary,

- repeat only the parts of the message to which you're replying.
- reply *immediately* after those parts.

> If so it really does not matter, as that is not what they think.

You're assuming that they think about it.  Note that this discussion
only took off after I applied another recommendation: change the
Subject: line.  How many people were following the thread "Load 0.20
on a freshly installed idle system"?

Greg
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