"Andy Levy" <andy.levy@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 3, 2008 12:59 PM, Phillip Batson <pbatson68@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> I like the replies on the top. If you are following a thread, then
>> the response is right here, and you don't have to scroll down
>> through all the other stuff you have already read.
> That's why you're supposed to snip the stuff you aren't replying to.
>> And if you haven't read it or need to catch up, then you can scroll
>> down and read it.
> Except you have to read backwards. Post 2 is ABOVE post 1, so you
> have to scroll to the bottom, read post 1, then scroll up to read
> post 2 (which may involve scrolling back down depending upon the
> length), and so on.
Agreed. I'm not even sure why there is any question about the
matter. If you are of the scientific bent and require proof and
facts, there are reams of data out there showing that bottom posting
and proper quoting is infinitely superior to top posting. (Do a google
search.) Beyond that, I'm not even sure how top posting came into
being - it goes against thousands of years of written tradition and
just feels completely un-natural. I will go so far as to say that if
top posting feels "right" to someone, that person may very well be
suffering from some sort of chemical imbalance. ;-)
About the only pseudo-valid reason I can think of for top posting
is plain ol' laziness. "I won't bother to reply point by point, and I
don't care that this makes it difficult for anyone else to follow or
reply, I'll just puke this reply up here and hit send."
In all seriousness, if a message is worth replying to, its worth
doing right. When considering a reply to a message, if it seems to
you like its not worth it to quote the relevant parts and address the
points brought up individually, but just doing a quick top-post is
probably worthwhile, then I submit to you that the message is not
worth replying to in the first place. In this case, compared to a top
post, silence is golden. :-)
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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