<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Why must there be a hard rule about top posting?<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If the replied to message(s) comprise a long logical sequence, the OCD among us experience cognitive dissonance if the order is “un-natural”. Thus bottom posting continues the “natural” sequence and makes life easier for many of us who otherwise would have difficulty maintaining context.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If a quoted message is concise, either by origin or by quoting only a salient point, top posting is not inappropriate. Context is nearby.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If the quoted message asks a series of questions, interspersed answers provide bottom posting on a per question basis which clearly indicates the relation of each reply segment to the appropriate segment. Again, this assists many of us in maintaining context.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If the reply is done from a tiny-screen as on an iPhone, context of long messages is impossible to maintain and, anyway, top posting is the default.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This whole argument is analogous to rigorously not aligning braces in C code because Ritchie did it. Or rigorously aligning braces in C code to make comprehending easier.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This reply is deliberately top posted with the reference material as a short appendix. It is in plain text so rendering has no browser dependancies and the archived version remains readable.</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">James R. Cutler</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><a href="mailto:James.cutler@consultant.com" class="">James.cutler@consultant.com</a></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">GPG keys: <a href="hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net" class="">hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net</a></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span></span></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></div></span></div></div></div>
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<div>On Mon, Jan 14, 2019 at 8:39 PM <<a href="mailto:valdis.kletnieks@vt.edu" class="">valdis.kletnieks@vt.edu</a>> wrote:<br class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.<br class="">
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?<br class="">
A: Top-posting.<br class="">
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?<br class="">
<br class="">
And now you're sitting here wondering what possible relevance that might have<br class="">
to some line or other - the only context you have at this point is that it's a<br class="">
reply to something you wrote. Actually, at this point you don't even have that.<br class="">
<br class="">
So you may have read this entire thing and now you're still wondering what<br class="">
possible relevance it may have to the thread.<br class="">
<br class="">
On Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:24:30 -0500, <a href="mailto:bzs@theworld.com" target="_blank" class="">bzs@theworld.com</a> said:<br class="">
> Why dig through what you've already read to see the new comments?<br class="">
<br class="">
Or you can put the comment after, so everybody who reads text top to bottom has<br class="">
the context. I'm not away of any languages or writing systems that work from<br class="">
bottom to top, so that's pretty much everybody. And if people trimmed the<br class="">
quoted material so only the parts being replied to are left, there's not much<br class="">
digging involved.<br class="">
<br class="">
</blockquote></div>
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