| Matthew Rosewarne on 3 Nov 2007 02:18:29 -0000 |
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On Friday 02 November 2007, Matt Mossholder wrote: > The gotcha with the bottom posting mentality is that is assumes that I > have no recollection of the proceeding message, even if I just read it. > Considering that most mailers these days do threading, it is a pretty > bad assumption that I need a remind of what people are talking bout with > every message in the thread. It's not really bottom-posting, but more like inline or interleaved posting. It doesn't make much of a difference when the message you're replying to only has one part (paragraph, point, etc.), but it makes a big difference when you have a mail with several parts (like this one, even). I use a threading MUA and interleaved replies still make it far easier for me to follow what's going on. > If I was going to campaign for something, it wouldn't be bottom posting, > it would be trimming, because the absolute worst thing someone can do it > not trim, and then bottom post. It is both a waste of space, and a royal > pain in the butt to get to the point of the message. If the message is > appropriately trimmed, then top or bottom posting is pretty much just a > matter of preference, and not worth complaining about. I don't think anyone's advocating quoting the whole message and then putting your replies on the bottom. When you do trim your quotes and/or split them into multiple parts, putting your reply below the quote just seems to better demonstrate the connection between quote and reply. I can't think of any examples where I've seen someone trim & split a quoted message and then put their replies above the quote; seems like it would be confusing to read. I don't really see JP's comment as a complaint (as in, whining or criticism), but instead as a request for some changes in style for everyone's sake, not unlike requesting people use spellcheck or punctuation. You don't _have_ to do any of these things, and not doing them doesn't make you a despicable villain, but doing them does make written discussion clearer. It gets annoying when requests like those get too numerous, but I don't think JP's single post puts us in danger of that. Anyway, it's not a huge issue, but a matter of convenience. I think most of us are on the same page already, so let's steer things back towards Linux. Attachment:
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