On Monday, July 26, 2010 10:53:39 am Arun Khan wrote:
people get offended.
+1
While most people abide by mailing list etiquettes, I am of the opinion that the content of the poster is more important than format.
If the poster is adding value to the discussion; that IMO is more valuable than the form. Of course, the poster can be gently reminded about adopting mailing list etiquettes.
In my early days of participation in USENET (late 80s) and mailing lists I was guilty of such "offences" but learnt the right way over time. On a few occasions, my posts were adding value to the discussion but they were rejected by the admins simply because it was not in the "right" format.
I remember when BLUG was alive, there was a draconian policy of moderating top posters - I am ashamed to say that I was a lead nazi in that movement. I remember being moderated once because I did not trim under the post and another time because I did not leave a blank line between the quoted matter and my reply. I had written a script to periodically scan the lists I was member of and calculate the percentage of top posts. We brought down the blug lists from about 70% to around 1-2%. I now only protest against top posts when they mess up the thread. I used to reformat the top posts when replying - but found it too much work and also the posters *still* did not understand. So let us continue with gentle persusasion.