[PLUG-TALK] Top or Bottom posting?

[Aaron Burt]

On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 09:39:40PM -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> I see that recently there is mix of top and bottom, which I find confusing.

I saw an interesting policy expressed on one list:
* When replying to the whole message, it's OK to top-post.[1]
* When replying to specific points in the message, please reply inline
 (i.e. trim and bottom-post.)

Automated quoting, threading and history makes Email (and its moribund
sister, Usenet) the greatest medium on the planet for nuanced discussion.
MS Outlook has trained a couple generations to use it to shout over each
other, instead.  Which is, I guess, what most folks prefer.

But smartphones are what really killed bottom-posting (and lengthly
replies) on technical lists.  In my experience, anyway.

Humanity needs a new discussion system.  Google tried that with Wave, but
no dice.  Web-forums are slowly reinventing email/usenet, but they're too
widely scattered to bother keeping up with more than 1-3.

Get off my lawn,
  Aaron

[1] I've noticed that few good emails deserve a single answer.