[OT] Why do people detest top posting so much?

[Dave Woyciesjes]

Lorenzo Taylor wrote:
> How about this. Don't top post. It clutters up a message with all the last 250 
> messages before it at the bottom of your message. Ouch, my poor listserve. Don't 
> bottom post. I can't speak for everyone, but I myself don't want to read the 
> entire conversation 250 times at the top of each message. When reading a book, 
> do you read the first chapter twice before reading the second chapter and then 
> read the first and second chapters in their entirety before reading the third? 
> If you do, you could read the book much faster if you didn't reread all those 
> previous chapters.
> 
	That's where email programs that quote using a bracket of some sort at 
the beginning of a line makes things easier. Skip the lines with the 
quote brackets.

> Instead, a person who composes a reply should try to make the message clear 
> enough that anyone interested can understand it without quoting at all. Or if 
> you must quote in order to make your reply clear, quote only the point to which 
> you are responding.
	Everyone can agree to this.

> I was just asking this because I wanted to get some information about the state 
> of e-mail on this list. Why is top posting bad?
> 
> Tom Thumb
> Senior consultant, Thumb Consulting, LTD
> 
> --
> Mailing list for those who use their thumbs
> lists at thumbs.com
> To unsubscribe, send a blank message to lists-unsubscribe at thumbs.com
> 
> Because it messes up the natural flow of a conversation
> 

	This example doesn't occur normally. All (Most?) modern email programs 
that automatically insert signatures at the bottom precede the sig with 
the standard separator - "-- " (2 dashes, space, CR).
	Then, when you reply to that message with your email program, it should 
automatically strip everything after the sig separator.
	Here, Thunderbird didn't strip after your example sig, because it was 
missing the space character.

	So, to review, if your example was done using Thunderbird, it would 
come out more like:

 > I was just asking this because I wanted to get some information about 
 > the state of e-mail on this list. Why is top posting bad?
 >
 > Tom Thumb
 > Senior consultant, Thumb Consulting, LTD
 >

Because it messes up the natural flow of a conversation

HTH,
Lorenzo

-- 
--- Dave Woyciesjes
--- ICQ# 905818
--- AIM - woyciesjes
--- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/
--- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/

"From there to here,
 From here to there,
Funny things
are everywhere."
--- Dr. Seuss