Brian van den Broek <bvande@po-box.mcgill.ca> wrote/replied to: >My text is not above yours to put me above you in any grand sense, >but simply to make the new contribution the very first thing people >see. Bottom posting makes people work to go past what they have seen >before. If someone receives say 200 email list messages a day, that's Not true. >a lot of their time spent scrolling past what they've already read. >With a top post, I can tell at a glance if I want to read more; with >bottom, I've work to do before I can judge. No difference. See you can stop reading right here since your viewpoint of posting is solidly locked and you've already read about why top posting is bad yet you believe otherwise... >Seems to me we agree on the goodness of being polite and respectful >(and probably mom and apple pie, too!), but differ on which method we >think best meets that goal. You need to get a good email reader. I don't think we agree on so much after all. We're following the rules, you aren't. As to reaching your goal, when I read your top posted message right now, it was as if nothing came before it. You've more or less brushed aside everyone else's lines and plunked your important lines right on top where you feel they are most important. Emily is right. See, when top posting, if you want to include quoted material (which I feel is so often important), it becomes a problem with top posting. Your only choices are to actually repeat what was said in your own words, or expect people to somehow scroll down and find what you're talking about. I like to post right below what I'm refering to. You expect people to know what you're talking about before starting to read your message. You might as well put your message on a blank sheet. Seriously, Emily is right, all these problems are the result of the world's number one OS email reader's defaults which the majority of dumb ass computer users never know about or change. It might be wise in many cases to just go with the defaults rather than buck the system, but there's just too many reasons to avoid these message pitfalls and it's really very easy to change one's habits of emailing slightlly. Oops, guess that's wrong cause many people fail to even understand the need and never even try to change their habits. They think they are right. One day perhaps these defaults will be changed, but I doubt it.
