I take your point that the whole message should be read before replying. Thank you. However, one can top-post and bottom-post without reading a message just as well as one can when interleaving a reply :-). Reply style is separate from the first issue (people should read their mail fully), because how one replies really depends on what one is trying to accomplish. btw top-posting is not the spawn of evil demons, it's perfectly appropriate in some situations, e.g. this one, where the original mail is just attached for possible reference. swb On 09/20/2010 14:20 EDT, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote: > One of the problems I have seen emerge on many IETF mailing lists is the > habit of fisking. > > By fisking I mean responding to a post line by line *while reading it > for the first time*. > > Now sometimes a line by line response is entirely appropriate. If > someone raises six different issues, you want to respond to each one > separately. But other times I see posts of the following form: > >> We should buy the red van > > Are you crazy, the last three vans were yellow. Only an idiot would buy > a red van (etc) > >> Because even though yellow is traditional the red one is on sale for > $1000 off. > > I seem to be reading an increasing number of posts on various lists > where it is very clear to me that the poster did not bother to read the > entire message before starting their reply. In particular I have read > rather a lot of people starting off by accusing their opponent of being > ignorant of issues that their opponent actually states only a few > paragraphs further on. > > > Traditionally, top-posting (or bottom posting) has been discouraged in > favor of responding line by line. I think it is time to reverse that > preference. > > In particular I find that arguments are often less combative and > somewhat shorter in mediums where people are forced to restate the issue > they are objecting to in their own words. > > -- > Website: http://hallambaker.com/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Ietf mailing list > Ietf@xxxxxxxx > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf