Re: [OT] Top Posting vs Bottom posting

Back in the days... I used to reply mid-post... This made it look more like
a live conversation. It was an editing nightmare and if it wasn't formatted
properly or your recipient's reader sucked, the person receiving often
missed information. If the conversation required more than a single reply
from each person involved however... icky acky ooo, what a mess, and I loved
it. Thought it was the cat's meow.

As flame wars ebbed and flowed, I decided to give bottom posting a swing.
Sure it's great to have a complete conversation, chronologically sorted top
to bottom, but if the conversation was long, or the reply just as long, or
the topic too complex to edit down to a smaller quoted chunk, it could be
just as annoying to scroll through the entire message, and hope you find the
start of the reply without having to scroll back. Then what happened if you
edited out a chunk that was later deemed important?

This lasted about a week. I hate bottom posting ... then I switched to top
posting.

Top posting is where I'm at, and will stay at. Chances are, when you opened
this letter, you recognized that the reply was `right here'... three seconds
and you found your goal. Life is good. 8)

As for all those lovely arguments against Top-Posting that quote ancient
RFCs on netiquette. The internet and usenet were created by... you guessed
it, Engineers. When left to their own devices, Engineers tend to design
things for reasons other than business and personal 'use'. Engineers like
big thick manuals... bottom posting is like a big thick manual. a b c d e f
g h... neat, orderly. When you're an Engineer or a Scientist, you need to
know a b c d e in the order of a b c d e. That works... sure, but um...
what happens when you're a consumer, a user, a business? Do you care?

Long are gone the days when the usenet was used solely by academia.
Top-posting is immediate. Top posting is personal. Top-posting is for the
masses.

I will try to sum up my opinions for the reason for top posting in few
useful, daily life arguments.

1. Same concept goes for good paper filing systems. You file new to the
front... where's the front of an email? top.

2. If you're blind, and you're listening to your news reader, following a
conversation thread, that is say 20 replies deep... how fast will you dump
that thread, important or otherwise if you must wade through all that
replied, quoted text to reach the simple response all the way down at the
bottom over and over and over...?

3a. Frankly, I think bottom posting is a great way to get ignored. How
valuable is my time? What makes that bottom-posting author think they are
so special that they must force readers to scroll ad-infinitum just to see
their special response? Answer: Nothing. Nothing you say is so important
to me to deserve spending my valuable time looking for your pearl of wisdom.
That's why we have `threads'. If I'm reading a thread, I already know the
purpose and content of that thread to begin with, because, it was at the
beginning of the 'thread'.

3b. In this age of not just immediate gratification, but of the immediacy of
information, anything but top posting, wastes time. We all know what time
is... money. My time is valuable, your time is valuable. Learn to
structure your thoughts quickly. Put it to print. Get it out there and
move on. Easier said than done, I know, for lots of people...

<asbestos>Selfish, narcissistic self-important ignorance to your true worth
to the world at large is what I think drives people to argue in favour of
bottom-posting. Bottom posting tells me more about your personality then
your words could.</asbestos>

You may have heard "The medium is the message. ... The content is the
audience". Boy oh boy does this apply to USENET. The medium is
instantaneous, and so too should be the message... this is the very essence
of Top-posting.

In the end, it's all about personal choice. It's up to the author to decide
how to respond. No one can say it's right or wrong, just of differing
opinion. Unlike a private company, on USENET there is no policy, and no one
& no way to enforce it (unless it's a moderated ng of course). It's a
public forum for all dogs on the internet to have their chance to be
praised, flamed or ignored, regardless.

now back to our program... and time for lunch! 8)

--
[ Robert ]
"Shenan Stanley" <newshelper@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u2ltoyZ2GHA.4796@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fosco wrote:
http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html

http://ursine.ca/Top_Posting

A: Because we read from top to bottom, left to right.
Q: Why should i start my reply below the quoted text?

If only the answer given above was true around the world.
It is not.

How to post is up to the individual posting. Sure - there are opinions
about it.

You may request that someone, in a particular case, post/reply so that it
is easier for *you* to follow. In the end, however; it is all personal
preference. While it is true that most of the time (in the world beyond
newsgroups) the question comes before the answer - some like to play
Jeopardy. While it is also true that when someone asks a question - they
expect to read the answer to their question - you have to remember that
the answer is not the only important part of the thread and is *never*
just for original poster - but for the millions who might read the thread
in years to come.

So respond how you like. My only complaint is all capital letters. That
is hard to read.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: [OT] Top Posting vs Bottom posting
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