Learning by example.

Friday, December 10. 2010

I asked someone today not to top-post on the hackers mailing list. He asked privately what that meant, and as I looked around briefly for links, I discovered this gem, which caused me some amusement:

Arguments to support bottom-posting...

A: Because we read from top to bottom, left to right.
Q: Why should I start my reply below the quoted text?

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

A: The lost context.
Q: What makes top-posted replies harder to read than bottom-posted?

A: Yes.
Q: Should I trim down the quoted part of an email to which I'm replying?

Posted by Andrew Dunstan in PostgreSQL at 02:10 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

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The problem with bottom posting is that most people tend to forget to trim the original and that makes bottom posting even worse. 
 
And with top posting I can easily spot the answer without scrolling. Especially with mail and news clients that can display the messages threaded (which nowadays every client can, I think) I do prefer top posting over bottom posting.

#1 Peter on 2010-12-10 02:48 (Reply)

Well, that would possibly be OK if everyone did. But top posting in a thread where people have been bottom posting is just unequivocally horrible.

#1.1 Andrew Dunstan on 2010-12-10 03:04 (Reply)

Usually emails have so much information that top posting makes discussion impossible since you don't know which part of your message triggered which part of the reply. 
 
Besides, I don't think forgetting to trim is a huge problem; at some point someone ALWAYS remembers to trim the original down. Having too much context has never been a problem either in my experience; having too little has.

#1.2 Marko Tiikkaja on 2010-12-10 03:55 (Reply)

> The problem with bottom posting is that most people tend to 
> forget to trim the original and that makes bottom posting even 
> worse. 
 
Getting aged, I'm remembering old networks with very small 
bandwidth (from a today's point of view). 
 
Not to trim was an epic failure those days. 
 
I can't remember that anyone answered at the top those days. 
Bottom/inline was usual. The common usage changed quickly after 
Microsoft invented the email. 
 
> And with top posting I can easily spot the answer without 
> scrolling. 
 
The answer to which question in the case of more content as in 
twitter or so? Context? 
 
> Especially with mail and news clients that can display the 
> messages threaded (which nowadays every client can, I think). 
 
Threaded display was more usual twenty years ago than 
nowadays. 
 
> I do prefer top posting over bottom posting. 
 
IMHO, bottom/inline comments are much more efficent.

#1.3 Kurt on 2010-12-10 23:07 (Reply)

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