Top or bottom posting?

Sarah Fox Jahn wrote:

Hello all,

Small question - which is better for the majority of readers - top or
bottom posting?

this comes up all the time. you'll find it impossible to come to any
kind of reasonable consensus with this group.

bottom posting combined with snipping what you aren't replying to or
interleaving is the ideal way to post.

I prefer top posting. Because you don't have to scroll and search to
read the new message.
In some cases I will simply delete the message I reply to, because it
is just way too long.




(Sarah Fox Jahn) wrote in message . ..
Hello all,

Small question - which is better for the majority of readers - top or
bottom posting?

With bottom-posters, I use Free Agent which first shows the top of a
post, so I need to scroll to the bottom to see new text. Usually, the
follow-up is after MUCH text quoting.... so I'm inclined to think
top-posting is the way to go. At least from my perspective.

The reason I ask was I usually top-post and wonder about how other
peoples' newsreaders are set up.

A geek,
Sarah Jahn

p.s. Hmm, something vaguely kinky about "top or bottom poster". ;-)

As best I can tell the arguments against top posting go like this:

1. We used to bottom post back in the good old days when only a few
thousand people were on the interent, so we want to continue this archaic
practice for old times sake.

2. MS OE does something different by default so because we have hate MS,
this must be bad.

Snipping out the irrelevant stuff is a good idea though.

I HATE bottom posting, but at least you snip. Most bottom posters don't.

Cheri


Saffire wrote in message ...
In article ,
says...
Hello all,

Small question - which is better for the majority of readers - top or
bottom posting?

I HATE top-posting.

--
Saffire
205/182/125
Atkins since 6/14/03
Progress photo: http://photos.yahoo.com/saffire333

I agree. I have reads the post and would like to read the reply without
having to scroll to the bottom. It just seems polite to me to read the
response and we do read top left to bottom right on all written pages.
Oh well nothing to start a flame war over just a preference for posters to
be aware of.


--
Emil Luca
08-12-03
369/318/200
"Cheri" wrote in message
...
I HATE bottom posting, but at least you snip. Most bottom posters don't.

Cheri


Saffire wrote in message ...
In article ,
says...
Hello all,

Small question - which is better for the majority of readers - top or
bottom posting?

I HATE top-posting.

--
Saffire
205/182/125
Atkins since 6/14/03
Progress photo: http://photos.yahoo.com/saffire333

"Emil Luca" writes:

I agree. I have reads the post and would like to read the reply without
having to scroll to the bottom. It just seems polite to me to read the
response and we do read top left to bottom right on all written pages.
Oh well nothing to start a flame war over just a preference for posters to
be aware of.

Like it's been said already, "bottom-posting" (which doesn't really exist;
rather in-the-middle-posting or interleaved posting), is no problem if
people aren't lazy and make the effort of trimming the quotes. And
top-posting has a fundamental flaw: the discussion is backwards.

Sarah Fox Jahn wrote:
Small question - which is better for the majority of
readers - top or bottom posting?


I prefer bottom posting; I can live with top posting.

However, people who don't trim the extraneous material out of
the post they are replying to need a darn good pummeling.

April.
Put out the cat.
--
"Things that try to look like things often do look more
like things than things. Well known fact."
Esmerelda Weatherwax (Pratchett 1988)

It gets mine too.

Julia

"JC Der Koenig" wrote in message
.com...
Top posting gets my vote.

--
JC

Eat less, exercise more.

--
"Sarah Fox Jahn" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

Small question - which is better for the majority of readers - top or
bottom posting?

With bottom-posters, I use Free Agent which first shows the top of a
post, so I need to scroll to the bottom to see new text. Usually, the
follow-up is after MUCH text quoting.... so I'm inclined to think
top-posting is the way to go. At least from my perspective.

The reason I ask was I usually top-post and wonder about how other
peoples' newsreaders are set up.

A geek,
Sarah Jahn

p.s. Hmm, something vaguely kinky about "top or bottom poster". ;-)

On Fri, 05 Dec 2003 03:11:15 GMT, Sarah Fox Jahn wrote:

Hello all,

Small question - which is better for the majority of readers - top or
bottom posting?


Doesn't make any difference to me. I use 40tude Dialog news
reader which automatically puts the cursor at the bottom of
the post for replies. It also has a feature that suppresses
the quoted text if you desire (toggles on/off with the "q"
key). It's a great news reader and it is free for private
users. Also comes with a spell checker. ;-)

Can be downloaded at:
http://www.40tude.com.


--
Randy M
234/202/175
Atkins since 7/14/03

P.S. For Windows only, no MAC or Linux. (I am not affiliated
with this company)

Witchy Way wrote:
i prefer top poasting. i hate scrolling forever for a one word response

Most actual newsreader applications have a key that will skip quoted
text and take you to the first line of new text (on mine, it's Tab).
I don't know if Outlook or your webtv application does.

In Email, top posting makes more sense, because it's a given that you
received and read the prior post already. On a bboard or web message
board, all the prior posts are typically still available for a very long
time, so top-posting may be more applicable. Neither necessarily applies
to news posts, as some posts may be lost or delayed to some servers,
and old posts are deleted from the servers. For some, old posts are
deleted in a only a couple of days, while other servers may store them
for a couple of months.

I prefer the traditional bottom posting (or interspersed, when replying
point by point), with quotes well-trimmed to only what is relevant.
People often come into the discussion in mid-thread, or receive replies
to some posts before receiving the original post.

--
jamie )

"There's a seeker born every minute."