a few reminders...

[Mark L. Chang]

On May 2, 2004, at 1:31 PM, Sean Ford wrote:

> I disagree. My statement in this email, in this context, is more 
> important than
> what you had previously stated in another email. The quoted text BELOW 
> is there
> for reference only.
>
> Email threads, from the beginning, have placed quoted text below. If we
> followed your suggestion, a thread containing 10 replies would force 
> the reader
> to re-read or re-scan the same information multiple times until s/he 
> is able to
> find the new information at the bottom.

( let me state that I really don't care either way, but I'll toss in my 
$0.02 anyway
   FWIW, it's a total holy war, but it's fun anyway )

Actually, RFC 1855, the RFC for Netiquette, wants you to do bottom 
posting. The logic behind this is that your statement in the current 
email is actually not more important without the context. So, your 
reply includes the necessary quoted text for context, followed by your 
contribution to the thread of discussion.

Here is an example:

Because it messes up the flow of reading.
I prefer to bottom-post.
 > How come?
 > What do you do instead?
 > > No.
 > > > Do you like top-posting?

The crux of it that makes it all work is editing the quoted material 
down to a reasonable length instead of just letting it all hang in 
there.

That said, I mostly top-post. Heh.

--
Mark L. Chang