At 07:22 PM 13/10/02 -0400, Richard Kleim rkleim1-at-tampabay.rr.com wrote: >Only when interleaving. When including the entire message like I am, >top posting is the only way.
Yes, the only way to include, for instance, all the sponsors links and so on in the footer, as you did. I assume you've received one of Dan's auto-warnings about that. >There seem to be a lot of 'brain farts' >around here. Too many brains, not enough common sense. True bottom >posting is MUCH harder to read unless you HAVE to read the original. If If you don't think it's necessary to read, why are you quoting it? What purpose does it serve anyone? >the communication is between 2 people, the first only needs his words >back as a reference at the bottom. With two people you should be only quote the passages you are directly responding to. He obviously knows what he wrote, and has a complete copy in his out folder. I hate receiving messages with my entire previous correspondence tacked on, as 1) it wastes my finite storage, 2) I have to at least scan through it just in case there are any comments interspersed. The automatic line at the top :"At 07:22 PM 13/10/02 -0400, you wrote:" removes any doubt as to what is being replied to. Would you, when sending a letter on paper, attach a photocopy of every letter you've sent or received? Do you quote a complete copy below every response, after it's gone back and forth five times? Ten times? In the situation of this mail list, have pity on the digest subscribers. Soon, an entire digest would be consumed by each of your replies. It's only because those responding to you have trimmed that this hasn't happened yet. God forbid if two top+everything quoters got into a hot debate. >With multiple replies, bottom >posting is a nightmare. Posters generally include everything in the >reply, necessitating top posting. Alternatively, posters should neither include everything, nor top post. > The messages on this site (other than yours) bear me out. Not mine either. (I'm not the "you" above.) > Bottom posting is a relic of the text-email days, We are still in ye olden text-email days. >and is useful primarily with small messages. I think completely the reverse. With short messages, it doesn't matter much, you can see the whole thing on one screen. With long messages, the sequence is completely lost. >I ignore many messages on >this list, as it is just too much effort to move the darn mouse and >scroll down, well...20 lines? 50 lines? 300 lines? I just don't wish to >reread the messages multiple times. If I want to see the original, I >can just scroll down when top posted. Duh. Depending on your reader, there should be a single key to go to the bottom, control/alt/apple + END most likely. Or just hold "PAGEDOWN" and it zips to the end. If messages are hundreds of lines, very likely it's someone carelessly quoting a whole digest, a much greater sin. I worked for someone who just clicked "reply" and started typing for all his correspondence. Sometimes I'd get 20k messages, when he included me in the distribution, with weeks worth of correspondence trailing behind one new paragraph that I actually needed to read. Dozens of signature blocks, forests of >> marks, mostly incomprehensible and confusing. However, I did find out quite a lot that he didn't intend me to know through reading bits quoted and passed on willy-nilly. Finally, if anyone has worked out how to get to the end of this or hasn't already deleted it, consider top and bottom conventions as like which side of the road to drive on. If you do the opposite to most in your community, you'll have a collision. -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
