[WikiEN-l] [OT]Yahoo, mail, "top-posting," etc.

[dpbsmith at verizon.net]

Just for the record: my inclusion of top-posters in the anathema list was 
ironic. The suggestion that RickK or anyone else should pay $30/year simply 
in order to avoid top-posting strikes me as absurd. Top-posting is like 
infinitive-splitting: it's an imaginary, artificial rule made up recently for 
the sole purpose of creating an artificial distinction between an out-group 
and an in-group. It was originally loose recommendation _in the service of 
making postings compact and comprehensible._ It wasn't until 1999 or 
thereabouts that people regularly began getting flamed for it. Try a Google 
"Advanced Groups" search on "top-posting" as exact phrase and limit the date 
range from 1981 to 1997 and you'll see what I mean. 

I generally don't top-post, just as I generally don't split 
infinitives, for the same reason: because I don't like being yelled at by 
people. 

As for Yahoo mail... when we got our high-speed connection, the first thing I 
did was, of course, was set up my email client to connect to (then) 
bellatlantic.net's pop server. My wife was new to the Internet, wanted to do 
everything herself. Her PC was preconfigured with the browser pointed at a 
Gateway-flavored Yahoo, and she discovered and signed up for Yahoo browser-
based mail. I kept offering to get her up with "real" email, but she kept 
saying no thanks. It pained me to see her clicking her way through the clumsy 
web-based UI. But ultimately the joke was on me. Using Yahoo web mail, she 
has enjoyed a high level of virus protection and spam filtering; has been 
able to keep the same email address; has had reliable email while I've 
experienced three or four multi-day outages on the part of Verizon's servers; 
and has been able to check her email conveniently when away from home.