Re: Top posting the rules etc was: Re: FN-FORUM: OFFFF FORUM: graphic designer/illustrator needing help with website

date posted 3rd October 2006 09:10

On 3 Oct 2006, at 08:15, Tony Crockford wrote:

> When I'm looking for freelancers to work with, the way they
> communicate is *very* important to me, as the way they use e-mail
> is usually the only way I have of judging them, the fact that they
> trim their replies and conform to netiquette makes me more likely
> to want to contract them for work.

Communication skills are important, and when the mode of
communication is e-mail, e-mail skills are important, I agree.

For similar reasons, if somebody writes in 'txt spk' on skype/aim/
msn, I'm not going to hire them or want to work with them. It's
unprofessional in that it makes it hard work to deal with them.

> In my book, people who defend top posting and consequent failure to
> trim off the crap (which is as much about politeness to digest
> readers than anything else) as a *right*, are people I don't want
> to employ, work with or help.

I've been thinking about this a bit, and I think I know what it is.

Those who interleave our responses are doing so because we want to
debate, discuss, we want to see e-mail as a kind of a forum for ideas.

Those who top-post are effectively saying 'listen to me'.

That's why those of us who inter-leave find top-posting rude, and
those who top-post think it's all personal preference. One group
thinks the conversation is more important than the persons involved,
the other group (sub-consciously!) think their impression on the
conversation is more important than the conversation.

It's not being deliberately rude, it's just open to interpretation as
rude because of how we all view e-mail as a medium. Those of us who
were knocking around Usenet before it got *really* silly are more
interested in the conversation than the individual, those who are
used to sending letters/faxes are more used to making themselves
heard in a 'traditional format'.

I once had a designer think the way I interleaved my responses as
'weird' and 'hard to read'. In fact, many people have thought it
strange, until I pointed out to them what those > characters meant at
the start of some of the lines. Some people really just don't know
there is an alternative to top-posting.

That said, to me top-posting says something about the individual that
means I probably won't want to work with them: my business is all
about deep-rooted knowledge of the technology, collaboration and the
communication of ideas above all else. Personal voices are a risk in
a way. That is why, I think, I wouldn't want to work with somebody
who uses that style.

> You may not care about that, and to be honest I don't care if you
> don't, I'm just explaining for the benefit of new freelancers,
> lurkers and people who *do* like to get it right so they don't come
> across as being rude.

Perhaps we all need a finishing school for freelancers where we all
learn how to communicate properly and how to handle our cashflows. :-)

Whilst we're at it, perhaps we need to educate the business community
as a whole as to why interleaved responses actually improve their e-
mail communication? Hmmmm.

Thanks,

--
Paul Robinson
http://vagueware.com