Top-posting (another different view) (was: Re: Top posting (a different point of view))
On Jun 09 2005, John Carline wrote:
> But, it would make my reading/following of threads much easier if I
> didn't have to scroll down to the bottom of post after post in a long
> string just to read the one line added to the 200 I've already read.
The point is: if somebody makes you scroll down many pages so that you can
see his/her answer, then the problem is that that person is not using the
right way of posting messages.
Quoting messages should be to the point and only leave relevant pieces of
older messages. And, of course, the attribution of each quote to the person
that generated it.
> It would be much better added at the top, where it pops onto the screen
> immediately and I can go on to the next post.
This isn't the case if what you are replying to needs a detailed answer.
And this is usually the case of a technical mailing list, like this one.
OTOH, if the person is only replying to a message in general, I see little
motivation to the practice of top-posting.
In fact, if the person doesn't really care about preserving the context to
where he/she is replying, then why quote the message at all? Just start a
reply to the thread from scratch.
Since that person is already assuming that the others are following the
thread to where the message is being sent, why preserve the older messages'
contents?
Just another view on this polemical issue, Rogério Brito.
--
Learn to quote e-mails decently at:
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
http://pub.tsn.dk/how-to-quote.php
http://learn.to/quote
http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/toppost.htm
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