Mailing List Nazis Go Home!

Jan 22, 11:37 pm
tags: ,

Oh, how I depise mailing list nazis. You know, the ones that feel like they simply must tell everyone else what is and what is not the proper way to post to a mailing list. Yeah, the ones that refuse to help someone with a problem because, gasp, that person top posted! The horror!

Here's a gem of a post I recently came across:

list:
> > It only happens when I try to send to any address.

> In case you're wondering why no-one's answering you, it's
> probably the  top-posting putting them off.

It's true.
I have no idea what he's talking about and I don't get paid to
figure out what you are talking about so I quickly skip to the next
message.

I read english left to right, top to bottom, how about you?

brian

Yeah, this particular mailing list nazi sure knows the rules of a mailing list, but he doesn't seem to know the rule that a proper noun (Brian) should be capitalized.

I come across nazis like this all the time while reading mailing lists and I've noticed a disturbing trend. It's the open source folks that are the nazis more times than those horrible Microsoft folk. Yes, the same open source people that tell everyone that open source is so great because of the community!

Sorry for the short rant, but this was just irking me today

Permanent Link
by Matt Wade

    1. Name says:
      Jan 23, 06:40 am

      Wait!
      He tells you that top posting makes it hard to read and you call him a Nazi? Do you think it’s fair to equate inhuman murderers with people who like to read from top to bottom?

      So you’ll continue to top post even though it’s confusing to some people?


    1. Andrew Krause says:
      Jan 23, 08:20 am

      I think you missed the point of the post “Name”. I believe Matt is saying that, while top posting is confusing, we should not slaughter people from doing it. It’s much better to answer the person’s question and then politely explain how to better format the e-mail. Remember that everyone has to start somewhere and that new posters will not automatically know the “rules”.


    1. Rick says:
      Jan 23, 09:03 am

      While I agree that the delivery wasn’t the best, the message is still valid.

      I think that when you hit a world where people are helping on their time and not getting paid to figure the confusing thread of events there is a shortage of patience.

      I think we’ve all done something that had gotten a rough response in the open source world. Ever hit an irc room that despises people changing their nicks with a status on it?


    1. Matt Wade says:
      Jan 23, 09:52 am

      “Name”, first I never said I top posted. I actually have been known to do so, on occasion, but that is besides the point. Nazi is commonly used to refer to someone that is a fanatic or goes “over the top” in regard to something. See definition #3. That was my use of the word. Sorry if I led you to believe other wise.




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