Top posting is best

[Dave Hinz]

I _know_ that Forte lets you killfile by subject. Or sender.

[MSCHAEF.COM]

The difference between your 'opinion' and my 'opinion' is that bottom posting (my opinion) has been formalized as 'correct' etiquette in RFC1855, whereas top posting has not. I know we're all supposed to be 'empowered to be individuals' in today's society, but there's something to be said for standards and cooperation (without which there'd be no Internet at all).

[fredfighter]

messages to

That is why the quoted text should be edited down to only that which is relevant to the reply.

opinion, and

Opinion is like flatulence. Everbody has it and everybody thinks the other person's stinks worse.

something to

"Without rules we'd all be swinging from trees flinging our crap at each other." -- Red Forman

[Larry Blanchard]

And it's been the Usenet convention since Usenet began - probably long before the OP ever saw a computer :-).

[Dave Hinz]

Dammit Larry, you keep agreeing with me. This is way past scary. Um...MaryAnn, or Ginger?

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Your reply is a perfect example of how a posting should be formatted. The purpose of a quotation is to allow a point of reference to previously written material; it is not supposed to be an archive of an entire conversation. Bottom posting allows for a more normal flow of conversation, but it's only effective when folks take the trouble to trim the quotation down to a paragraph or two. Nobody wants to scroll down through reams of material for a one line reply.

Top posting makes the flow awkward and usually the top poster doesn't bother trimming any of his quotation either. A pox on his house!

Anyway, you get a gold star for doing it the way it should be done.

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Not true. I've had a gastric bypass and ever since mine is carcenogenic to any other poor soul caught in the blast. I recognize, acknowledge, and revel in that knowledge. After all, anything worth doing is worth doing well.

[Treetops]

This may be a "perfect example" but it's kind of irrelevant in our = "imperfect" world.

99.999% of posters, be they top, bottom or middle (IMHO the worst kind ) = posters do not snip, and never will. So now, all of us when following a thread must scroll down to the meat = on the majority of posts (since bottom posts dominate), wading thru = maybe 3 days worth of posts which our eyes, if not our brain, have now = seen umteen times. What a waste of time and energy to say nothing of the = wear and tear on arthritic fingers. Why don't we just chaulk up the concept of snipping as a nice = theoretical but impractical plan and all start top posting. And no snipping so if someone wants to reread things, its all there.

I nominate Bob, the OP, for moderator.

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote > > ALWAYS trim posts. That's the polite thing to do.

conversation. Bottom=20

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Because there's no need to repost the same material over and over again. What a waste of bandwidth! Think how much faster the internet would be if it didn't have to ship spam worldwide. All your suggestion would do is codify the slowing of the net... and make you feel less guilty since you can't afford the few seconds necessary to delete redundant information. Or maybe you lack the skills?

[Bruce Barnett]

Well....

1) a regular reader doesn't need the entire threat repeated each time. It's irritating to see the same thing again. 2) If you have a threaded news reader, you know the thread anyway.

It's really only useful to someone who hasn't been following the thread. Besides, there is a second problem. See below, ander I first include the line I was responding to.

Here are the previous postings, in "top-posting order" to this comment.

"Le> Well actually I think that each post being answered to should be

Now that I repeated the thread WITH trimming, in the top-posting form that you prefer, and I find hard to follow, here is the second problem with top posting.

3) it makes discussing something point by point very difficult to follow.

If I wanted to respond to each of your points one at a time, there is no place to put it, while keeping previous threads intact.

I can do this with bottom posting, and make it readable.

Top posting forces you to scroll through the other posts in the opposite and natural order of reading, and in fact you have to jump both up and down to follow the discussion of anything more than a short response.

You can always DAGS on "top posting"

Sites that are anti-top-posting usually outnumber anti-bottom-posting sites by 10 to 1, or more.

[Bruce Barnett]

These posters are rude. The way I and most old timers see it, being rude is anti-social. If we as a group allow this, then we are harming ourselves for allowing rude behavior.

If we want the group to be more pleasant to read, then we should, as a group, let others know their behavior is anti-social. If these people learn and change, great. If not, there are kill files.

Or we can remain silent, and let the anti-social behavior continue, and therefore encourage more anti-social behavior by accepting it. This means there is a great chance of talented and knowledgable people deciding to permanently leave, and we all lose.

[Bruce Barnett]

Bottom posting doesn't people's waste time if people TRIM THEIR POSTS.

[Leon]

I agree, but I am a frequent poster and sometimes a target of how I should do it. Really I don't care if some one wants to read what I have to say or how they feel I should post. I normally try to make it EQUALLY easy for both of us but being human that does not always happen.

[Leon]

Bottom posting doesn't people's waste time if people TRIM THEIR POSTS.

And then there are those that do not proof read what they type. See, none of us are perfect and we all are capable of making mistakes. I for one am guilty of all mistakes. LOL wondering what you really meant to say. ;~)

[OldNick]

On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 14:13:08 GMT, "Leon" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Reasonable trimming should allow enough context to either let you know what'ts going on, or lead you to look back. If somebody is not interested enough to check out the thread or already have been following it, then their importance to the thread and other posters is minimal.

[OldNick]

On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 22:28:57 GMT, "Bob" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Please place

OT:Top posting is best

in front of the topic of messages like this.

[Tim Zimmerman]

"Bob" writes

Most top posters tend to quote the entire posting.

First, we shouldn't quote the entire posting that we are responding to because many people (especially outside the United States) have to pay for their Internet access by the minute and/or by the amount of data transferred.

Secondly, we shouldn't put our comments above the quoted material because people who aren't directly involved in a discussion themselves usually follow the logic more easily when they can read the material in more-or-less chronological order.

And finally, it's completely unnecessary to quote people's "signatures" at the ends of their postings since they just take up space.

[Unisaw A100]

See what I mean?

UA100

[Tom Watson]

Hell, Keeter - that weren't even a guess.

That dude is >Dave H>>I _know_ that Forte lets you killfile by subject. Or sender.

You only get points for making good guesses, not betting on sure things.

watson - who thought he would try both top and bottom posting in the same message, just to see what it would be like - Ooooh, It makes me feel soooo wicked.

Thomas J. Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

(webpage)

[Dave Hinz]

not snip, and never will.

Your estimate is a bit high.

majority of posts (since bottom posts dominate), wading thru maybe 3 days worth of posts which our eyes, if not our brain, have now seen umteen times. What a waste of time and energy to say nothing of the wear and tear on arthritic fingers.

Can those fingers hit "enter" every once in a while? Your line length is at 240 characters for that last one. Horizontal scrolling is even more annoying that top-posters.

impractical plan and all start top posting.

That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. I'd like to quote one of Mortimer's comments in the context of your response, but you've got the conversation all upside-down now.

And I notice you didn't snip anything either.

On that, of course, we agree.