[Tfug] Netiquette police: top-posting

[Christopher Robbins]

There was a big blowup in the early days of the opensuse listserv where
people were being flamed into oblivion for top-posting.  Hell, I didn't
even know what "top-posting" was until I joined the opensuse list.  In
smaller lists like our own, I can't see where this becomes too much of a
problem.  Most of the posts don't go that deep, so it's not too hard to
bounce back and forth.  However, on larger lists (like the opensuse list),
this can quickly become a nightmare, so I can see the advantage of
bottom-posting.

When I joined the list two years ago, there wasn't much prodding about
top-posting - I can't remember there being any complaints about it.

-Chris

PS - Sorry about the top-post

On Thu, 3 Nov 2005, Robert Hunter wrote:

> Wikipedia has a nice article on the subject:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-posting
>
> Apparently there are arguments for and against any style.  For
> instance, my particular pet-peeve has always been in-line replies,
> because I dislike having to filter through quoted text.  Despite this
> I have found it useful at times to use inline replies for the sake of
> clarity.
>
> I currently use the gmail web-based thing, which you could say
> promotes top-posting.  First, it creates replies with the insertion
> point at the top.  Also, it automatically folds quoted text in
> replies, and does some basic threading, which makes it easy to read
> threads of top-posted replies.
>
> Therefore I believe what style you use depends on factors of taste,
> the behavior of the particular of mail interface you use, and even the
> context of the discussion.
>
>
> On 11/3/05, Claude Rubinson <rubinson at u.arizona.edu> 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?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Claude
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> >
>
>
> --
> Rob
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