Re: [NTLK] Top-Posting (OT)

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On Jun 24, 2006, at 18.34, Woody Smith wrote:

> With new postings I will read from top to bottom.

Which is why non-top-posted in-line quoting is favorable. A question
will often have multiple points. Though this method (which I am
demonstrating), we have the ability to read top-to-botton, AND
understand what you're talking about.

> And if I just dropped in it would seem helpful to read previous
> content first,

Or if you're attempting to answer a message with several points.

> but I read on a regular basis. Since novel and intriguing content
> are what I seek, I keep my finger poised on the delete button.

Then, you are not exactly your typical mailing list user. Most
mailing lists work like a gigantic help forum. I shout in "Hey, I
have this problem!" and people shout back to me. Your typical mailing
lister will read all messages, in the hopes of giving back to the
community. I've helped out several times, and in many cases, right
off the bat, I wasn't able to. However, someone else has this
approach, but it has flaw X. I can then help solve flaw X, without
having to read the message backwards.

> I appreciate not needing to scroll.

I have no problem with it, if it aids me being able to understand
what's being talked about. That's why I love my mail client's Space
Bar Scroll feature. It's like page down, except pressing up and down
will move me between messages, and left and right will open and close
threads. These are common features of most good mail apps (Apple's
Mail.app, Ximian's Evolution, Mozilla Foundation's ThunderBird, etc.)

> Additionally I frequently use the list archives and appreciate top
> posting when I am attempting to follow a thread that may continue
> over numerous posts.

Even in archives, there's the problem of knowing what point precisely
is being answered. Just look at the MPlayer mailing list, or the
MythTV mailing list. Both are incredibly helpful, and are easy to
read, mostly because they use in-line replying, as opposed to top-
posting. Most mailing lists won't stand for top-posting.

> Woody
>
>
> On Jun 24, 2006, at 5:54 PM, david wrote:
>
>> At 13.34 -0400 06-06-24, L.W. Brown wrote/06-06-24, 13.34 -0400 skrev
>> L.W. Brown
>>
>>> And because some people simply cannot learn to read _below_ for
>>> prior
>>> history, and others quote too much text.
>>> However, scrolling past reams of what you have already read to find
>>> the new text is a pain (again, people tend to quote too much).

This is part of the nice thing of in-line editing: you can easily
chop out the parts you're NOT replying to, and maintain the
readability and integrity of the message. Most people like to insert
[snip] just to be nice, but it's not something people will really
care about (like top-posting)
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