Aahz wrote:

Guido has previously given himself explicit permission to violate netiquette (including the rule about top-posting).

Only in the Python mailing lists, I hope -- unless he's declared himself BDFL of the whole Internet as well. :-) I suppose he could be considered to have a right to do that, but it doesn't stop sloppy quoting practices from being annoying and inefficient. The quoting conventions that emerged in the early days did so for good reasons -- they avoid squandering bandwidth and aid clear communication. To me, it's not so much a matter of politeness, but of common sense. -- Greg