I prefer top posting and my company practically demands it. Nobody wants to wade through a bunch of reference crap to find out what the hell you're saying. Say it right up front. We'll zip on down to the references if we need to. After all, it's what your saying that folks are responding to. In fact, this has been the model in all other modes of correspondence since the dawn of writing with sharp sticks on clay tablets! When's the last time you received any other mode of correspondence, professional or otherwise wherein the reference material was up front? Almost never! If you get a letter with attachments, even a previous letter upon which the reply is based, where are the attachments? In back! This is the way these posts should be too. Frankly, I don't want to scroll down past a bunch of reference crap just to see if what you have to say is worth responding to. Yes, I'm aware that there are a bunch of "Net Nannies" out there purporting to be the arbiters of all things net. They're just a bunch of geeks with no life other than to try to shame other folks into doing what they say as though it's the only proper way. I've been screwing with this media since it was ARPANET and have heard these whiners too. I don't listen to them and neither should you. The plain truth is that this is the way many of us post, not only here but on other forums as well. In fact, top posting is the norm on most lists (as in almost all other media). I, for one, have never had a problem following threads (both long and short) supported solely by top posters. I am able to do it with only my modest intelligence, so I'm sure you can also, if you put your mind to it. If you stop trying to control things you can't control, namely other people, and accept folks for who they are, you may find more serenity. Trying to control other folks is always a loosing proposition. For the most part, when all is said and done, they will simply ignore you or perhaps rebel in some manner and this will only irk and frustrate you. Then you'll find yourself resorting to all sorts of ineffectual control methods, such as shaming the poor object of your ire. The only thing you can control is yourself, so sit back, relax and listen to "Get Over It" - Eagles. Regards, Bob... From: "Emily L. Ferguson" <elf@cape.com> > OK this is how top posting comes across to me: > > When you top post you stop conversation and draw attention to yourself. > > You begin by superimposing what YOU have to say on TOP of what the > other person has to say, rather than showing that you've considered > the details of their message and can respond to parts of it. > > Then you place your entire message above theirs without deleting > theirs, thus doubling or trebling the size of the complete post > (another rude thing to do to those who either store or have to pay by > the time unit to download) thus reinforcing the superiority of your > message in their mind. > > In addition, by placing your message above theirs you inconvenience > all who might not have been following the entire train of thought, > making it necessary for them to scroll up and down throughout the > message to find out what you're referring to. > > Finally, the effect is to bring conversation to a complete halt, > leaving you on TOP. > > Doesn't surprise me at all that this sort of default came from Mr. > Gates. He's got all these techniques for argument down cold and they > permeate his system. > > To me, this is jerk behavior. Power play behavior. It's not what > this list is about. Ideally email is a mechanism for conversation. > In fact, its capacity to aid conversation is one of the reasons that > people are giving up writing letters. > > The solution? Think of email as conversation, not an opportunity to > dominate or get the last word in an argument.
