Why do people detest top posting so much?

[Markus Schönhaber]

Bart Silverstrim:
> Pete Clapham wrote:

> >Bottom posting forces
> > you to go through all that again until you find the answer you're
> > interested in.  Top posting makes it easier to continue a conversation.
>
> A) WHY KEEP THE OLD MATERIAL THEN IF YOU'VE MEMORIZE THE WHOLE THING?
> B) Archives for reference, or your own systems INDEXED FOR SEARCH trash
> and sent items.
> C) *inline* posting. Not bottom post, unless *composing* a message
> dictates that it makes your intentions and message CLEAR.

At last, the one and only important point spoken out loud and clear. Thanks 
for that!

To put it another way: full quotes are (with very, very few exceptions) brain-
dead. And there's no point in arguing how to make this brain-deadness a little 
less painful to suffer.

> > May I also humbly point out that each list serve has its own customs.
> > /Every/ other list serve that I am involved in prefers to top-post
> > because it makes communication easier.
>
> Easier to hand out a brain belch. Too lazy to properly format a message,
> too properly to actually compose a message to others...top posting is
> the older generation's equivalent to misspeak. "easier" means "I don't
> have to trim the post or actually put thought into what I'm trying to say."
>
> >If this one prefers bottom
> > posting, then fine.  But to suggest that top-posting is somehow bad and
> > snapping at people for it is, shall we say, inappropriate at best.
>
> Telling them they should be shot instead of just filtering their
> messages is inappropriate. But it is definitely bad for people who spend
> a lot of time reading and not trying to decode and sift through crud.

Exactly. In my experience, the most knowledgeable people on technical lists 
will not read only the ONE list but many. They may get hundreds or even 
thousands of list mails each day. It should be clear that they don't have the 
time to read every single post but to select what they read and what the do 
*not* read.
Making your post hard to read is a verly good means to make sure it's going to 
be ignored. Whether you do that by useless full-quoting, by proving your 
inability to come up with a sensible subject line but rather using it to tell 
the world how "URGENT!!!!!!!" your post is, or if you do it by some other 
nonsense is only a matter of taste.

If one has a problem he wants to get solved, it's in his own interest to post 
it in a way that the readers consider readable.

Regards
  mks