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

[Lorenzo Taylor]

Derek,

In the case of responding to a specific user, I can simply put your name in the 
message, as I do here. I'm not trying to be confusing, I am just trying to 
eliminate a lot of unnecessary reading and rereading. I myself use speech to 
read my mail, so it causes major extra reading for me to have to reread the same 
message I already read, and there is no totally guaranteed way to get past the 
cruft in a quick way, although there are now some things I can try, but they 
don't always work. This is why the people on the list nearly always see me 
getting hot over bottom posting. I read from top to bottom as well, but I can't 
easily skip down to the part of the message that I haven't read at least 3 times 
or even wrote myself, in which case I didn't forget what I wrote myself. The 
threads in my mail reader are also good enough to keep the flow of the 
conversation together without having to reread anything. For me, not quoting at 
all allows me to read the conversation as:

How do I install a program on Ubuntu?

You install programs using apt-get or aptitude, or by using the synaptic package 
manager.

rather than having to read it as:

How do you install a program in Ubuntu?

You wrote:
 > How do I install a program in Ubuntu?

You use Synaptic package manager. Or if you use a terminal, you can use apt-get 
or aptitude.

Since I already read the question and it came first in the thread, the answer 
makes perfect sense, because the messages in the thread are grouped together. If 
the conversation becomes more complex, then some clarification of the specific 
topic of the reply may be in order, but I rarely need quoted text for that. Most 
of the time, a simple rephrasing of a specific part of the question can provide 
enough clarity for me to follow the thread. The only time quoting makes sense to 
me is if I am responding to multiple points in a previous post. Then I do quote 
in the natural flow. I usually do this not when specifically answering a 
question, but when responding to someone's response. I put a very simple 
attribution, usually edited way down from Thunderbird's rather lengthy line of 
cruft, followed by *only* the specific point I respond to first, copied and 
pasted in from the mail that I still have open, and then I quote *only* the 
relevant part of the second point followed by my response, and soforth. I never 
requote quotes or have multiple attributions when I am responding to only one 
person. There are some times when multiple attributions may be necessary, but 
that only applies if I feel I need to quote, which again is rare, and then only 
if I am responding to 2 or more people in a single message, which again is rare. 
I can use 2 messages for that unless they tie so closely together that a single 
message is able to better respond to 2 or more points from 2 or more people.

The only other point I would make is that outlook users should definitely 
consider trimming their attributions.  Most of the time, if I see something like:

---- Original message ----
From: Tom Thumb, <tomthumb at hotmail.com>
To: "Ubuntu Users, Not for General Discussion", <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: Wednesday February 25, 2009
Subject: Using Synaptic package manager

at the top of a message, I simply delete it, not because I don't want to help, 
but because it's just a lot of trouble to try to get down to the relevant part 
of the message. Yes, I know I probably missed the answer to my question, but 
that's just too much cruft to try to work through.

I hope this better clarifies my position and lets the people on the list know 
that I don't try to start flamewars and I usually don't get involved in them, 
but I have a technical reason for getting involved in a discussion of how to 
post replies on the list. I look forward to the day when Orca knows how to skip 
quoting in a message all the time with a specific method rather than multiple 
methods that are not really for quoting and don't always work.

Lorenzo
-- 
  Great Goddess Isis,
Thou who art above the stars,
  Grant us peace and love.
--Lorenzo Taylor