[PLUG] top posting vs. bottom posting

[Paul Johnson]

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On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 05:59:50PM -0800, AthlonRob wrote:
> To be fair... AOL defaults to bottom-posting.  If you highlight the text
> you wish to reply to, and hit the reply button, the text is quoted (HTML
> blockquote style) and the cursor is set at the bottom of the message.

That's slightly better, since you're probably going to have to skim
what was already written to put it into context.  If you don't edit
down and intersperse, you're not executing any control in the context,
so you can still lose clarity in what's being said.

> My take on the whole thing:
> 
> A: Top-posting
> Q: What's the most annoying thing on usenet?

More tactfully:

A: Because it reads backwards.
Q: Why isn't top posting a good idea?

> For casual email, I often will top-post.  If I bottom-post, it confuses
> some computer illiterates when they open the email and just see what
> they already sent you.

That's why you have to edit a bit.  I'm demonstrating the standard
convention.

- -- 
 .''`.     Paul Johnson <baloo at ursine.ca>
: :'  :    
`. `'`     proud Debian admin and user
  `-  Debian - when you have better things to do than fix a system
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