dammIT

A rantbox

Some wise words


No, not my own wise words, but I think they are worth reading. First, a piece about top posting [be it in e-mail, newsgroup postings or wherever]:

A: Maybe because some people are too annoyed by top-posting.
Q: Why do I not get an answer to my question(s)?
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

For our Dutchies out there I made a translation [so I can be lazy and copy/paste it whenever somebody annoys me with it]:

A: Misschien omdat sommige mensen zeer geïrriteerd raken door top-posting
V: Waarom krijg ik geen antwoord op mijn vraag/vragen?
A: Omdat het de volgorde waarin mensen normaal hun tekst lezen totaal omgooit
V: Waarom is top-posting zo slecht?

I want to add to that, that I'm getting annoyed too by people who only answer one of my questions in an e-mail. Maybe they are so accustumed to top-posting [sic], that they're only capable of reading the first paragraph of e-mails or such :/

Anyway, another quote I came along, digging through my quotes.txt file [this one I copied 2004-06-13]:

I got an email with a funny question: A worldwide survey was conducted by the United Nations. The only question asked was: "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure...
In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant.
In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant.
In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant.
In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.
In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.
In South America they didn't know what "please" meant.
And in the USA they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.

Of course a bit exaggerated, but some true observations are made. Especially the last one, which is documented in quite some Hollywood movies ;)