on a different "manners" topic, was Re: Phishing...

Wed Jan 3 14:33:20 UTC 2007

I'm not going to pick on the "it's" (grammatically correct, but it 
refers the email disclaimers which I don't feel like commenting on) 
but I want to say that I've come to appreciate top-posting.  With 
top-posts, there is no need to scroll down the list, and it is more 
like a conversation than injecting comments in-line.

Some say that top-posting reverses the conversation, but if you are 
thumbing through the archives of top-posted threads, each 
contribution is on the first screen and you can navigate message to 
message in time-order.  In my personal opinion, reading through 
archives of in-lined threads is much more of a problem - for one 
because threads take off in other directions and an in-line 
conversation never stands alone.  Usually with a few nested in-lines 
I loose "who said what" context too.

(As an exercise, try to prepare a reply in-line and then as a 
top-post.  You will see that in-line means less typing, as you don't 
have to "rephrase the question."  In-line is less work to render, but 
I think it is a poor communication style.)

As far as the HTML, I don't think I use it, but I fail to see why 
it's rude.  Sorry, it is newer technology and it does screw up old 
tools.  (I do get bit by it - the hotels seem to love HTML 
confirmations that I can't read on my work mailer.)  It's my/reader's 
choice to not use newer tools.

I do agree that full quoting is a pain - especially when the message 
is less than 1% new content.  Especially when all them new headers 
(DKIM keys and what not) fill up my screen first anyway. Yeah, I 
know, "upgrade."

There.  I've said it...oh, and the disclaimers don't give me 
heartburn.  I just ignore them.

At 8:03 -0500 1/3/07, Rich Kulawiec wrote:

>Because it's very rude -- like top-posting, or full-quoting, or sending
>email marked up with HTML.  Because it's an unprovoked threat.  Because

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Edward Lewis                                                +1-571-434-5468
NeuStar

Dessert - aka Service Pack 1 for lunch.