On Sat, 2010-12-04 at 19:19 -0800, Joe Zeff wrote: > On 12/04/2010 06:59 PM, Gregory Pittman wrote: > > Another thing I see is that many of those who top-post simply keep > > adding onto a post rather than trimming it down to the part they wish to > > comment about. Especially if you're familiar with a thread, you don't > > need the entire thread contained in each post. > > The only thing worse than that, IMAO, is quoting the entire message, > including several previous messages and then put one or two lines of new > text at the bottom. Replying to something in the middle of the quoted > text instead of at the bottom seems to be compulsory with some people.
This debate has been ongoing as long as I've been online, and is no closer to resolution than it was then. Generally, I prefer bottom posting, it makes more sense if I arrive halfway through a conversation, or a reply is to a message a few days old and I've forgotten the original context. I also think its better practice to reply under the par I'm responding to, rather than at the very end of a message. Snipping irrelevant content helps readability. If you write a tend par message and only par four is of interest to me, I tend to snip the other pars. Trouble is, when you do that, sometimes people will complain of being quoted out of context. -- Gerard Cunningham Journalist Kildare, Co Kildare
