Top Posting

[James Freer]

Raevan

Sorry to go back to your original post but no one has contributed
these links which you might find helpful... then there is my breath
taking summary!!!

>  What is top posting and how can avoid doing it? I am sorry for asking such a simple question but I have never been part of a mailing list until now; thus, I have no idea what I am doing.

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/brox.html
http://www.dragonstrider.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/30-Top-Posting-vs.-Bottom-Posting.html
http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html

While folk have explained what top/bottom posting is i don't feel it
is unreasonable to point out some of the 'pros and cons' of each.

Until a couple of years ago i think virtually everyone for emails top
posted. Mainly due to the default set up on webmail or an email
client.

Top posting:
1] most emails are a response to a specific query that one replies to
generally and thus quoted text isn't used. Like my email today from
the lawyer... just a two liner to say he'd received the documents i'd
sent. In personal email one is not often referring to specifics in the
same way as on usenet. You often know from the subject line what to
expect when you receive a reply so don't need to read through again.
2] corporation email is often set-up so that emails are automatically
trimmed after four (or so) replies - or limit number of lines.
3] quicker... which means one responds to more mail.
4] reverse chronological order... like CVs

Bottom posting:
5] ideally suited to quoted specifics on newsgroups which require
concise answers [which can still be done when top posting]
6] chronological order - Control PageDown in the message window to
read the latest reply in longer emails. Trimming is required to avoid
this which takes time - but that is what folk should do.
7] thread sense can be lost with replies (thread hijacking is one
thing that really irritates me).

To me email is not the same as newsgroups but BOTTOM POST everytime
then folk are happy. tbh i wish an international etiquette was decided
on so only one or the other was used BY EVERYONE. It seems Evolution
and Thunderbird promote bottom posting which then conflicts with the
webmail users who are doing top posting (as it's default) because it's
more effort to bottom post. I'm happy to respond with either but top
posting seems more popular overall - changing between the two i find a
pain.

james