"amaryllis" wrote in message
...

Dave wrote in message
...
Kay wrote

An increasing number of people are posting replies to threads without
any indication of what it is that they're replying to, other than the
heading which may or may not be informative.

Like many (most?) people, I'm reading this newsgroup using software
Eventually we should have everyone copying the normal conventions here,
but I think we've just attracted a lot of new posters recently. A lot of
learner-drivers not showing L plates?
--
David



Please help a newbie - Is there any way of getting the ordinary Outlook
Express to position the cursor (for typing) below the previous text
automatically when penning a reply? This would stop me doing the dreaded
top
posting mistake!

Here's hoping,

A


Just take the cursor down the page with the up/down arrow keys.

BUT, please please please do NOT be put off by the net nannies. Barrowcloth
is having a very bad hair day so ignore her, pose your questions to the
others on the newsgroup and dive in. YOU are just as much part of this as
the 'owners' who will try to dominate the newsgroup with lots or very
personal chatter to others, create a hell of a long thread with rubbish
which could quite as easily have gone to email, but would not be so
''impressive'.

By the way, when you pose your questions, they will be dealt with by the
'ordinary' gardeners like you and 'her out doors' and a lot of lurkers.

Mike
killfiled by the 'owners' :-))

--
National Service (RAF) Ass. Cosford 24 - 27 June Spitfire Fly Past
H.M.S.Impregnable Ass. Sussex 1 - 4 July Visit to Int. Fest of the Sea
RAF Regiment Assoc. Scarborough 2 - 5 Sept. Visit to Eden Camp
H.M.S.Collingwood Assn Trafalgar Dinner. Coventry October 21 - 24

In article , amaryllis
wrote:
[snip]


Please help a newbie - Is there any way of getting the ordinary Outlook
Express to position the cursor (for typing) below the previous text
automatically when penning a reply? This would stop me doing the dreaded
top posting mistake!

Well, my mail/news reading/writing software also puts the caret at the
start when I open a 'reply' window. The idea, though, is that you then read
down what you intend to respond to, snipping out items that there is no
need to repeat, and fitting your comments in below each sections which you
wish to comment upon. The aim being to aid readability for those who get
your response. Hence if the caret were initially placed at the end you
would have to work 'upwards' to do this.

Simply "bottom posting" without snipping or editing what you are replying
to can be even more irritating to others than "top posting" as they have to
scroll down through a long duplicate of already-read text to reach the
response.

The point of the caret starting at the 'top' is not for you to assume this
is where your entire reply is to be typed. It is to allow you to proceed in
a logical manner thereafter. :-) Thus it isn't really "top-posting"
versus "bottom-posting". It is "leaving in all the original as an
indigestible chunk" versus "editing the reply to be clearly and easily
readable with minimal duplication or wasted effort by those reading your
response."

BTW I don't use OE, but this is for many other reasons... :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

The message
from "amaryllis" contains these words:

* (my first cursor, editing)

Please help a newbie - Is there any way of getting the ordinary Outlook
Express to position the cursor (for typing) below the previous text
automatically when penning a reply?

** (second cursor position, typing) I have that facility but don't use
it; it's not useful IMHO

This would stop me doing the dreaded top
posting mistake!

*** (final cursor position) As you can see from the * in this post, I
first used the cursor to edit out parts of your post, leaving just the
minimum amount necessary of the portions I wanted to respond to. Editing
out extraneous material is very important, otherwise threads get far too
cluttered. Ideally, a post should fit onto a single frame if that's
possible, so readers can see it all without scrolling down. Next, I
inserted the cursor under your first paragraph and replied to the point
in it. Putting my cursor at the bottom of your post to write this para,
was it's third position. Not the first.

This is called in-line replying, and (in a long or complex post) is
much easier to follow than if I put all my reply in one lump at the end
of everything I quoted.

Janet

wonderful, very helpful and caring response.

A great improvement. Keep it up.

In message m, VX
writes
On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 17:20:24 +0100, Kay wrote
(in message ):

An increasing number of people are posting replies to threads without
any indication of what it is that they're replying to, other than the
heading which may or may not be informative.

Like many (most?) people, I'm reading this newsgroup using software that
takes me straight from one new post to the next. There's an awful lot of
posts in this newsgroup, and when someone simply follows up a previous
post with no indication of what it's about, it's a hassle to have to
start backtracking to find the post being responded to, or, worse still,
try and find a post in a separate thread with the same name.

Please could people quote enough of the post they're replying to so that
readers know what it is they're talking about? It would make reading
posts a lot easier, and it would also mean that there's a better chance
of getting a reply.


I notice that your newsreader is Turnpike. When I last used Turnpike, which
was in the first year of it becoming available (gasp- getting on for ten
years ago!), even then it used a clever graphical interface that displayed
the threading of newsgroup posts. I found it to be an excellent newsreader
and I find it hard to believe that it has regressed iand become more
primitive since then. Your ISP's tech helpline should be able to tell you how
to change the settings if you don't know.

It works OK for me but some people object to expanding threads in order
to find out what is going on. I have to admit that if I don't like a
posting, I tend to just move on to the next one, which is not really a
good practice.
--
June Hughes

In message , Jaques
d'Alltrades writes
The message
from Dave contains these words:

IME top posting is the convention for business where time and getting
the reply is most important and you are most likely to be familiar both
with the subject and the poster. Bottom posting for ngs where you really
need to know the context (out of many many possible threads and ngs) in
order to understand the reply

However, judicious use of the secateurs would be appreciated.

Well, yes. We have had many long, long posts recently. However,
over-snipping is surely as bad as not snipping at all. IIRC, some 10
years ago we were all advised to keep a post to one screen so that
no-one had to scroll down.
--
June Hughes

The message
from "Mike" contains these words:


wonderful, very helpful and caring response.

A great improvement. Keep it up.

Erm, which one Mike?

Mike wrote:
wonderful, very helpful and caring response.
A great improvement. Keep it up.

Iy you're KF'd by J.B., why bother to reply? All this carp
is irritating me, who currently has no axe to grind.

Iy you're KF'd by J.B., why bother to reply? All this carp
is irritating me, who currently has no axe to grind.

Why let me control your emotions to such a degree that "I" am irritating
you? Have you no control over yourself? Are you admitting that I am more
powerful than you and that you circum to me? Not very strong are you? Might
I respectfully suggest a visit to Nuneham Courtney and the Brahma Kumaris
organisation?

Very best wishes for an improvement in your self esteem

Mike
Om Shanti

"Chris Bacon" wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:
wonderful, very helpful and caring response.
A great improvement. Keep it up.

Iy you're KF'd by J.B., why bother to reply? All this carp
is irritating me, who currently has no axe to grind.

Oddly enough, for something that should attract mellow relaxed people, URG
is one of the more hostile newsgroups I have read. Between the looney
crossposting, barked instructions from netnannies and interminable rows
about cats, you do get a lot of carp. I would like to see more cod.

Mike wrote:
Chris Bacon wrote, but Mike munged the attributions:
Iy you're KF'd by J.B., why bother to reply? All this carp
is irritating me, who currently has no axe to grind.

Why let me control your emotions to such a degree that "I" am
irritating you?

You're not controlling anything, just coming over as a bit of
a twit.

You're not controlling anything, just coming over as a bit of
a twit.

but I was 'irritating' him. 'I' was controlling his emotions which should
never happen.

The net nannies try to 'control' the newbies and those who know next to
nothing about gardening and come here for 'help', only to be told 'How to
post', 'Do not ask questions', 'Go and look here there and everywhere'

OK? :-))

Mike

--
National Service (RAF) Ass. Cosford 24 - 27 June Spitfire Fly Past
H.M.S.Impregnable Ass. Sussex 1 - 4 July Visit to Int. Fest of the Sea
RAF Regiment Assoc. Scarborough 2 - 5 Sept. Visit to Eden Camp
H.M.S.Collingwood Assn Trafalgar Dinner. Coventry October 21 - 24

Do recall your "friend" who spent his working hours irritating people
and what happened to him?
--
Martin

'Muppett'? Don't see much of him since the postings about his 'activities'
in the men's toilets. :-(( yuck :-(( even one of the lady regulars of this
newsgroup emailed me with disgust at such activities.

I am afraid that he put himself in the gutter when he used fowl, (or should
that be foul?) language on the newsgroups. There is NO reason at all to
stoop so low as to swear in public and I regard the newsgroups as public.

Not at all surprised he has not posted. "That" sort of person is not wanted.

Mike

--
National Service (RAF) Ass. Cosford 24 - 27 June Spitfire Fly Past
H.M.S.Impregnable Ass. Sussex 1 - 4 July Visit to Int. Fest of the Sea
RAF Regiment Assoc. Scarborough 2 - 5 Sept. Visit to Eden Camp
H.M.S.Collingwood Assn Trafalgar Dinner. Coventry October 21 - 24

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:56:17 +0100, "Des Higgins"
wrote:


"Chris Bacon" wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:
wonderful, very helpful and caring response.
A great improvement. Keep it up.

Iy you're KF'd by J.B., why bother to reply? All this carp
is irritating me, who currently has no axe to grind.

Oddly enough, for something that should attract mellow relaxed people,
URG
is one of the more hostile newsgroups I have read. Between the looney
crossposting, barked instructions from netnannies and interminable rows
about cats, you do get a lot of carp. I would like to see more cod.

Is this really the plaice for old cod?

Pollocks!

--
Martin

The message
from June Hughes contains these words:
In message , Jaques
d'Alltrades writes
The message
from Dave contains these words:

IME top posting is the convention for business where time and getting
the reply is most important and you are most likely to be familiar both
with the subject and the poster. Bottom posting for ngs where you really
need to know the context (out of many many possible threads and ngs) in
order to understand the reply

However, judicious use of the secateurs would be appreciated.

Well, yes. We have had many long, long posts recently. However,
over-snipping is surely as bad as not snipping at all. IIRC, some 10
years ago we were all advised to keep a post to one screen so that
no-one had to scroll down.

Some newsreaders wouldn't send a reply if the reply was more than a
certain proportion of the quoted text.

It soon became obvious that this was A Bad Idea, and it was left up to
the judgement and/or industry of the poster to trim as required.

Quoting nothing invites a post to be ignored because it's usually
difficult to guess the context, and overquoting - leaving a
sodding-great chunk and adding a line or two is just lazy.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/