Comments on: Top Posting http://pthree.org/2009/10/19/top-posting/ Linux. GNU. Freedom. Fri, 17 May 2013 20:46:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6-beta2-24176 By: Buttmeister http://pthree.org/2009/10/19/top-posting/#comment-110475 Buttmeister Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:46:31 +0000 http://pthree.org/?p=1165#comment-110475 I am the buttmeister

]]> By: Mat http://pthree.org/2009/10/19/top-posting/#comment-110328 Mat Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:58:27 +0000 http://pthree.org/?p=1165#comment-110328 Loved the quote.

]]> By: Flimm http://pthree.org/2009/10/19/top-posting/#comment-110327 Flimm Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:51:18 +0000 http://pthree.org/?p=1165#comment-110327

Just doing my civic duty, here is a posting by Stuart Jansen to the Salt Lake Linux Users Group mailing list:

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
A: No.
Q: Should I include quotations after my reply?

See also: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/T/top-post.html

Enough said.

It’s terribly annoying.

]]> By: Stéphan K. http://pthree.org/2009/10/19/top-posting/#comment-110326 Stéphan K. Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:39:41 +0000 http://pthree.org/?p=1165#comment-110326 In my experience, people who top-post do not selectively quote (“trim fat”) either. I suppose you won’t see the beauty of it until you get both right. :)

Also, inline forwarding is the devil.

]]> By: Aaron http://pthree.org/2009/10/19/top-posting/#comment-110324 Aaron Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:10:51 +0000 http://pthree.org/?p=1165#comment-110324 @James and @Sam- It’s not different at all. It doesn’t matter who you are addressing, conversations read from oldest to newest, left to right, top to bottom. Look at blog comments, for example, or forum posts. Can you imagine what it would be like if the oldest post was at the bottom, and the most recent post up top?

Top-posting is extremely arrogant of the sender. It assumes that everyone wants to read that post before all others. Further, top-posting encourages massive, MASSIVE replies, as no one bothers trimming out the fat, and giving only the relevant information critical for his reply.

There’s nothing good out of top-posting.

]]> By: Sam http://pthree.org/2009/10/19/top-posting/#comment-110323 Sam Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:14:20 +0000 http://pthree.org/?p=1165#comment-110323 Totally agreed with James.

]]> By: James http://pthree.org/2009/10/19/top-posting/#comment-110322 James Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:52:36 +0000 http://pthree.org/?p=1165#comment-110322 Top posting in a normal email is different from doing it in a usenet post in that:

1. In my experience, most emails are between a small number of people.
2. All parties involved have generally been following and reading the whole thing.
2. It’s expected rather than abhorred.

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