Post In-line for Context
When you quote, you're doing it to provide context. Requiring your
readers to scroll down and then back, repeatedly (as they attempt to
figure out what the heck you're talking about), is a rather difficult
way for you to make the context available. Providing the context
up-front will get you better results.
There's no way to build a threaded discussion with top-posting.
Top-posting severely inhibits others from understanding the
conversation, because the context of the conversation is out of
order, as in broken.
It is far easier for your recipients to follow the ongoing
conversation in a message that uses quotes in-line like this:
> Quote of one point
Your response
> Quote of another point
Your response to the second point
than it is for your readers to follow along if you use top-posting
like this (thanks to Adam Brower by way of Patricia Shaffer):
Oh! Now it makes sense to me. Okay! No more
top-posting for me!
> It's annoying because it reverses the normal
> order of conversation. In fact, many people
> ignore top-posted messages.
> > What's so wrong with that?
> > > That's posting your response before
> > > the message you're quoting.
> > > > People keep bugging me about
> > > > "top-posting." What does that mean?
or as in this very touching example (from Clifton Sharp):
"I'll see you at Linda's wedding."
"Well, see ya soon."
"Congratulations!"
"Ten thousand a year."
"How much?"
"Got a really big raise this time."
"Sorry to hear it. How's the job?"
"She's not feeling well. Flu, I think."
"Same as ever. How's yours?"
"How's your wife?"
"They painted her purple. They should call her the Prune Fart now."
"Good. Did you hear what Martin and Sheila did to the Sea Breeze?"
"Good, and you?"
"Bill! How the heck are you?"
Top-posting makes your message incomprehensible to many of your
readers. In normal conversation, after all, you don't answer to
something that has not yet been said. Replying at the top confuses
your readers, making any point you're trying to get across very
unclear without them scrolling down and back repeatedly, searching to
re-integrate context. That extra, wholly unnecessary work leads to
reader irritation, or worse, to readers just not bothering with your
words at all.
Since your object is to get your message across, help your readers
follow by placing your words in context, not prior to the context.
Doing otherwise, forcing your readers to go to extra work
unnecessarily, is often irritating, sometimes interpreted as
insulting, or in severe cases taken as attempt by you to show your
"power". Any way you cut that, delivering your words in an hard to
read manner doesn't help your case. Instead, post in-line to preserve
context and respect your readers.
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