[Tfug] Netiquette police: top-posting

[Nathanial Hendler]

On Thu, Nov 03, 2005 at 11:32:15AM -0700, Claude Rubinson wrote:
> Not directed at anyone in particular but there's been a rash of people
> top-posting lately.  It's really annoying.  I just want to remind
> people not to do this and, furthermore, prod people into taking the
> time to quote only those portions of the message that your replying
> to, providing context for your reply and keeping messages to a
> manageable length.  If your editor makes this difficult for you then
> it's time to get yourself a better editor.
> 
> As Karsten Self likes to write,
> 
>     A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
>     Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
>     A: Top-posting.
>     Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

Interesting, I didn't know this bothered anyone else.  For years I would always
write after the quoted text.  If I remember correctly, I think this was the norm
even on BBSs.  Then, it seemed that every list I was on contained more
top-posting than not, and I thought it was very awkward.

Sometimes convention changes, and it's not for the better.  If most people
expect newer comments to be at the top of an email, perhaps putting new
comments below is just as annoying to them.

The problem is that now, if someone replies to this message, and top posts, the
order is screwed up; not just the direction of the order.  For some people,
reading down for past messages is second nature and very logical.

As for your other comments, I couldn't agree more (not that I disagree with
your top-post comments).  Just plain asking people to take time in general is
important.  Context and proper commenting are not hard skills to apply.

Nathan
http://retards.org/