"Bill Sornson" wrote in message
...
Jeff Grippe wrote:
"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
...

ALL TOP POSTERS ARE IDIOTS!


It's very interesting that you should say that again. I have joined a
Yahoo newsgroup where top posting is pretty much the way it is done.
Everyone seems to top post all the time. I don't think that they are
all idiots but you never can tell.

Is it truly a "newsgroup" like this (Usenet) or one of many "Yahoo!
Groups" like our local mountain biking list? Almost every member
top-replies on that, too, because it's e-mail based for most and even the
online version just puts the latest post at the top.

The reason top-posting is stupid on a /newsgroup/ is mainly because it's
"threaded", not individual messages.

Bill "if all else fails, ask Michael Press" S.

Well, FWIW, I claim the to be the voice of someone who has been doing this
for a really long time. My experience with threaded conversations goes back
to the days of BBS's and modems. When I started on my first chat BBS the
best modem you could buy was 1200 baud. I actually go back to 110/300 baud
and acoustic couplers but I didn't use those for threaded conversations. As
a though experiment, however, top-posting would have been far superior on a
KSR-33.

Although the conversations were threaded, most regular readers already knew
what the previous messages were. Anyone who wanted to join the thread could
either start at the beginning or jump right in.

The rules that made sense back then (and still do to my way of thinking) is
that you would top post if your reply was a response to the entire message
that preceded it. OTOH, you would insert your text into the message if you
were responding point by point.

This message could just have easily been top-posted with no lack of clarity.
You could still follow the thread by reading what is below it or by reading
the previous message.

I would say that to top post a point by point rebuttal is not such a great
idea but otherwise, it works as well as bottom posting. My point has always
been that it isn't an all or nothing thing. Top posting isn't always evil
and bottom posting isn't always better.

Jeff