Why do people detest top posting so much?

[Rich Kulawiec]

On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 01:45:01PM +0000, Odzangba K. Dake wrote:
> Ok, I just have to ask... what is so wrong with it.

Briefly, because it's quite rude.  It is in essence a statement by
the sender that they are too lazy to trim quoted content, preserving
only that which is necessary to establish context for their remarks,
and appending their own after them so that someone who happens
across that single message can read both the quoted material and
the response in logical order.  Those who don't do this -- *especially*
on mailing lists -- are more-or-less declaring that their time is
more valuable than the combined time of all readers of the mailing list
(which of course includes anyone coming across an archive of it years
later) and that they simply can't be bothered to make the effort
required to compose their messages properly and thus accomodate
their audience.  Thus: quite rude.

For further exposition, see:

	Miss Mailers Answers Your Questions on Mailing Lists
	http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/miss-mailers/

---Rsk