Top or bottom.... matters less than some think.

[Michael Schwendt]

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 23:41:01 -0800, Tom Mitchell wrote:

> Top or bottom posting is not the issue, communication is.
> 
> If I was tossed back on an old 300/150 baud modem I would love to see
> top posting as the norm.  

If you want to follow many threads at once (also complex ones which may be
not trivial to understand), you need quotes which maintain context
properly. On average, a reply at the top which is ripped out of its
context -- and which forces you to scroll down to the bottom and try to
reconstruct the context by finding the relevant information in nested
complete quotes of previous messages and list footers -- results in
replies of worse quality.

> As an old timer I still value it when done well.
> 
> Operative phrase, "when well done".

99% of the top-posters fail to do it "well", IMO.

> I am a person that happens to like
> seeing information on the _first_ screen (30 lines). 

"Information"? 99% of the top-posters refer to some details found in the
completely quoted previous message at the bottom. They fail to phrase
their reply in a way you would not need the quote.

> If all I see is
> history it might hit page once, twice then 'd' it is.

So do many knowledgable people if they have not dropped off these lists
already (which is a pitty!).
 
> However, on lists like this almost,
> 	no one is on a 300 baud or slower modem,

Fine. Let's make multipart/alternative and HTML plus "plain text" the
rule. ;) Also think about the list server who must deliver superfluous
quotes to thousands of subscribers.

> 	no one keeps lots of threads handy and

So? Examine the older archives a bit. Many of the people, who have had
helped in many threads at once, no longer do this and are gone or dead
silent. Top-postings have been the reason for several tiresome
misunderstandings, where a top-poster was the culprit.

> 	no one has a 'dumb' mail interface anymore.

Still I need to page down to the bottom of a message in order to see
whether any reply can be found there, too. Also, those not so "dumb" mail
interfaces generate messages with overlong lines which appear pretty much
unreadable here, because the recipient cannot enforce block-text on
already preformatted overlong lines.
 
-- 
Michael, who replies to well-formatted messages more often than
to top-postings and complete quotes.