The Logic Off Topic list

From: Colin Miller <snoopy@...> 
Date: Wed May 8, 2002 0:24pm 
Subject: Re: [LUG] [GEN] Quoting style  



On Wednesday 08 May 2002 05:15 am, Sascha Franck wrote:
> I just wanted to add that quoting at the bottom is not only against
> anything one might consider to be "common" use on mailing lists (even if
> many people don't seem to know this at all), but as Hendrik Jan allready
> said, it's also against all western reading standards.
> Whenever you read anything, you will read from top to bottom.
> Whenever someone posts a question you will naturally expect the answer to
> follow, not vice versa.

The irony is that all the reasons people list for not top posting, are
the 
reasons I prefer it. I go by western english standards which means I
read 
from top to bottom and the first logical thing for me to read is the
current 
text since the Subject indicated the thread. Maybe I am just different
than 
most people in that I rarely if ever have to read the quotes other than
as a 
quick reference from time to time to see which small part the reply is 
referring to. To me Top posting more adheres to western reading
standards, 
but that is just my own opinion of course. 

If someone asks a question, that question proceeded the reply in the
original 
post, so logically I expec to read the response next, not two copies of
the 
original question. What I personally like:

question:response:referenced question

as opposed to:

question:referenced question :response

Hey, I'm down for whatever is best for the majority, which seems like
bottom 
posting. Just gets so frustrating for me scrolling though quoted text
all the 
time, knowing I only want to see the current reply. As far as laziness
goes, 
since the bottom of the e-mail has to be removed always, laziness is 
definitely never a cause of anyone on this lst top quoting as it
actually 
takes more effort on the writer if anything. And there may be some
standard 
rule written, but I can say having working in the ISP business for a
couple 
years, I have always seen top posting preferred in most news groups (I 
realise this is a subjective point), and not out of ignorance, but out
of 
efficiency. Cheers! :-)

Colin Miller