On 01/29/2013 12:31 PM, Chris Murphy wrote:
On Jan 29, 2013, at 5:43 AM, Alec Leamas <leamas.alec@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Please don't top-post [1]
[1]
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines#If_You_Are_Replying_to_a_Message
It's amusing that it doesn't explain why. It just says don't do it.
Top posting fails worse than bottom posting when what's quoted is
poorly trimmed bottom posting. The lack of trim is common in both
styles. But if done aggressively, I don't see the problem, e.g. had
I top posted in this case, it would not be a real problem (vs an
imaginary one).
There's an old saying that 'punctuality is the courtesy of the kings'.
Nowadays, careful editing of correspondence seems to have become as
precious as the courtesy of the kings. It is hard to follow a message
that has lots of boilerplate quoted or cut-and-paste material, with
interesting, relevant content hidden at the end. In extreme, it makes a
mockery of the common recommendation for bottom-posting --- if the
quoted material is dumped indiscriminately in front of the new content,
it would actually be less hard to read if it was top-posted, especially
on the mobile devices that more of us use nowadays.
In other words, literate persons are expected to weave the trimmed
quotes and their responses into a coherent message --- that's the true
meaning of "bottom-posting". In contrast, 'top-posting' implies giving
up on trimming and editing for context.
The point here is that careful editing makes huge difference to the
reader. Sure, it takes time and effort --- as Seneca said, "I apologize
for this very long letter but I was out of time" --- but the goal of
writing is to communicate, so if it is worth doing at all, it is worth
doing well.
Please forgive this older colleague for droning on. I thought it could
strengthen or inspire someone's resolve to keep up the style, and so
would not be impolite to send it to the list even though most postings
here are usefully edited.
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