Conrad, Bill (ThomasTech) <> wrote:
: Can some one explain why bottom posting is preferred to top
: posting?
First, let's define what Bottom Posting and Top Posting are.
Top Posting involves leaving the existing message whole
and intact and posting your reply above that quoted
message. The entire previous message is retained.
Bottom Posting involves editing the original message such
that only relevant passages remain and then posting a
reply below each relevant quote. I think many Top
Posting advocates do not realize that Bottom Posting
is not just upside down Top Posting.
Other Posting styles are a mixture or are completely bizarre.
Many people falsely believe they are bottom posting by
placing their reply below unedited massages.
Email in a technical email list is very rarely formatted as a
single question with a single reply. I might, for example, answer
one long question with several answers (as in a code review where
relevant parts of the code are quoted and then corrections appear
below).
Top posting squashes all replies to the top of the reply
message. It is up to the reader to decipher which part of the
original text applies to which question or it is up to the replier
to rewrite his message in a manner which does not force the reader
to continuously scroll up and down to understand the answer.
Essentially repeating or rewording the relevant sections.
Top posters tend to reply above the entire original post.
There is no editing of that text. If my reply answers a two line
section of a 50K message and I top post, my post will be larger
than 50K (my answer plus the entire original message). If I bottom
post, only the two lines needed to make sense of my answer are
needed and the post is about 50K smaller in size. Source code, for
example, rarely needs to be in the follow up post.
: I view my email with a preview box sorted by subject and order
: received.
Then it is convenient for you to go to the previous message
should this poster have edited the original Madge too much.
: I like top posting better because I don't have to scroll to
: the bottom to see the reply.
I bottom posted this reply and you didn't have to scroll to
start reading my reply. Bottom posting does not involve scrolling
meaningless text to view a reply. It is only meaningful, edited
text which remains.
Bottom posting does not just mean the reply is on the bottom.
Like my reply here, it also means I will intersperse my answers
under meaningful and/or audited passages. There is no reason to
quote an entire message to answer only a part of it.
On most technical lists, replies from the most experienced
are replies which need to be bottom posted. Interspersing the
"conversation" with top posts makes the job of the volunteering
"expert" more difficult (especially with particularly long
answers). There is an incentive to bottom post and keep the
experts happy.
Top posting code and quoting a long code passage can make
the reply difficult to grasp. Think of a math test where you
teacher pales all the corrections at the top of your test
instead near the problem you got wrong. It might take some time
to match the correction with the answer.
Old people, like me, have participated in this particular
thread for years. I remember discussing top posting on Fido-Net,
long before the internet was popular. For the most part, younger
emailers tend to like top posting while older mailers tend to
like bottom posting. As they age, many newcomers become bottom
posters.
Top Posters are often considered rude by Bottom Posters
because all bottom posting requires editing the original message.
Sometimes it is obvious the Top Poster cannot be bothered with
such trivial courtesies. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish
the Lazy Top Posters from other Top Posters.
I also belong to several email lists which involve a great
deal of debate. Bottom posting allows me to answer each point of
my opponent and to conveniently tell who posted which passage. It
is the top posted articles which most often ate problems with
improper quoting. Invariably, about once a month, someone will top
post "I think that's a dumb thing to say," leaving it up to
everyone else to wonder about which passage was dumb.
HTH,
Charles K. Clarkson
--
Mobile Homes Specialist
254 968-8328
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