[ubuntu-uk] Top Posting

[Juan J. Martínez]

On Wed, 2011-11-23 at 10:33 +0000, Jon Reynolds wrote:
> On Wed, November 23, 2011 10:07, Philip Stubbs wrote:
> > ...At work, my boss
> > may have a long back and forth with a supplier, and then suddenly
> > include me with a 'What do you think?' type message. In that
> > situation, I am glad that they have top posted, including all the old
> > messages, as I can then look back and see what has already been
> > covered by all parties.
> 
> Not sure I get this bit, wouldn't that be a great argument for
> bottom-posting? You suddenly get copied in on a conversation type email
> and have to make sense of the flow. Reading  it from top to bottom in
> chronological order (like a conversation in a novel) would be easier. With
> top-posted back and forth type conversations, you have to go to the
> bottom, read, then scroll up, then read down, etc...

That's the beauty of enterprisey communications where lots of people are
CCed and most of them barely understands email. Different people replies
in different ways: plain text, HTML, some quote using '>', others use
colours, others a TAB (?), and others don't care and it's almost
impossible to discern what's the original text and what's a reply. Add
to this about a 60%-80% of useless text containing contact details and
business disclaimers, and you've found hell.

Is this a good argument for top-posting? It might be, but when someone
asks you to join the conversation with a "what do you think?", it's
probably too late and it doesn't matter because most of the people being
CCed are as lost as you are.

Regards,

Juan