OT: Top-posting (was Re: [Mimedefang] Interesting anti-HTML filter side-effect)

[Ben Kamen]

Actually, I've given him much grief on that footer... it went something 
along the lines of:

==========================================================================
 >>> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
 >> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
 > Q: Why do I not get an answer to my question(s)?
A: Maybe because some people are too annoyed by top-posting.

 >> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
 > A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why do I not get an answer to my question(s)?

 > Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.

Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
==========================================================================

THAT's why top posting is ok.

MOST people have no problem reconstructing an inverted conversation 
thread when it's text right in front of them. Also, depending on the 
email sorting (I sort newest-at-top) it doesn't matter anyway...

Of course we don't talk that way - but I'm typing, aren't I?

  -Ben


David F. Skoll wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Kris Deugau wrote:
> 
> 
>>The reason this happens is that an awful lot of people who should really
>>know better don't snip out the irrelevant sections of the message
>>they're replying to,
>>
> 
> And I'm convinced the reason for _that_ is that most MUA's use
> a rinky-dink text widget for composing e-mail instead of a proper
> text editor.  So it's fairly tedious to snip out irrelevant text.
> 
> I'm still annoyed at the Evolution coders for not supporting an
> external editor.  Until then, it's Pine and Emacs for me. :-)
> 
> By the way, Claus Assmann, one of the Sendmail developers, has a very
> nice signature:
> 
> A: Maybe because some people are too annoyed by top-posting.
> Q: Why do I not get an answer to my question(s)?
> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
>