Top Posting, was Re: ASR33 $1000+ And Counting...

[Nathan Pralle]

Marvin Johnston wrote:
> The *only* reason for inline or bottom posting IMNSHO is to refresh
> readers memory about what has been said in the past, and to keep things
> in context if there could be doubt. 

Well, exactly.  Shouldn't the burden fall to the reader of the post to 
refresh his/her memory of the discussion if there was a question as to 
the nature of the context of the post?  For this reason, I prefer top 
posting.

If I'm in a long, drawn-out discussion with someone on a listserv, I 
don't need to refresh my memory as to what is happening in the 
discussion.  If I read a post and have trouble placing it, a simple 
scroll-down to the quoted portion will give me my needed reference. 
Otherwise, I can skip having to scroll past anything at all just to read 
the content of the message.

Of course, the quoted portion should be limited to the bare minimum 
necessary to convey the context and should be free of extra 
sigs/cruft/etc.

However, since I have my mail windows configured to only display a few 
paragraphs of a message, I prefer to have the response at the top for 
convenience -- the quote is only for reference.  If I need it, I know 
it's there.  If I don't, it's not in my way at the bottom.

The exception to this is when a posting involves several points; at that 
point, I may choose to post within the previous writing to respond to 
each point as appropriate.

Bottom posting has its place.  So does top and inter-posting.  Use each 
one in the correct manner and keep things neat and tidy and I doubt 
you'll have many people complaining.

MHO and M2C.

Nathan