Why do people detest top posting so much?

[Derek Broughton]

Pete Clapham wrote:

> Derek Broughton wrote:
>> Odzangba K. Dake wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> Ok, I just have to ask... what is so wrong with it. I admit that I
>>
>> As my standard response says:
>>
>> "Please don't top-post.  It makes it hard to have a conversation".
>>
>> Conversations are "he said... she said...".  Reversing it confuses
>> people.
>>   
> May I humbly point out that if you're actually following the
> conversation, you've read the previous messages. 

May I, not nearly so humbly, point out that you have no right to expect that
on a mailing list or newsgroup?

In business mails - print or email - the idea of writing a response with the
prior messages following (stapled to the back in the case of print), is
reasonable, because you have a right to expect that the people who've been
involved _have_ read it, and if they weren't involved from the start
they're expected to familiarize themselves.

This isn't something I do as a job - we're all volunteers, and the least you
can do is make sure that we can find enough context to be able to follow
the conversation.

> 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.

As I continually point out, nobody likes bottom posting either.  
Top-posters always believe that it's an either/or situation. You quote as I
am here, otherwise your posts simply won't be read.

> May I also humbly point out that each listserve has its own customs.
> /Every/ other listserve that I am involved in prefers to top-post

You belong to some very odd lists.  The only computer-related lists  I've
_ever_ read where top-posting is even close to a norm are for Plone - and
that's because there are two or three people we can't afford to ignore who
can't be bothered to behave politely.

> because it makes communication easier.  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.

To even remotely suggest that top-posting is good is inappropriate at best. 
This argument has been, literally, going on for decades, and it's always a
minority of mean-spirited egotists who insist that the rest of us are
wrong.  They usually hang around for a week or two, and then go away
because we won't change to accomodate them.
-- 
derek