From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 23 04:24:17 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 22E9116A418 for ; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:24:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fbsd06+QQ=612dd791@mlists.homeunix.com) Received: from mxout-04.mxes.net (mxout-04.mxes.net [216.86.168.179]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 15F6713C459 for ; Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:24:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fbsd06+QQ=612dd791@mlists.homeunix.com) Received: from gumby.homeunix.com. (unknown [87.81.140.128]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.mxes.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2995FD0501 for ; Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:24:14 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:24:11 +0000 From: RW To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20071123042411.0a003ef0@gumby.homeunix.com.> In-Reply-To: <31AE442CCBC1094ABC40CE85B0149F06468CE8@MAIL1.registry.otago.ac.nz> References: <31AE442CCBC1094ABC40CE85B0149F06468CE8@MAIL1.registry.otago.ac.nz> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.0.2 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: top posting (off-topic) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:24:17 -0000 On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:22:50 +1300 "Brent Jones" wrote: > Sorry if this is a bit off topic for this list, but it seem to be a > comment that comes up very regularly; "please don't top post..." > > I for one prefer top posting, as usually I have read a particular > thread enough times that I like to cut to the chase and read the new > input without having to scroll down, sometimes navigating an endless > nesting of >>> For me, reading through top posted replies saves time > and effort. If I happened to miss something in the conversation I can > scroll down to find it. > > Anyone else feel the same? No, top-posting is superficially appealing when all replies are limited to a few words that generally end in "sucks" or "rocks", but it doesn't scale to complex threads. The point of quoting is not only to keep a record of what went before, it's to show which aspects of previous posts are being addressed by the reply. That sometimes requires multilevel and interleaved quoting, which doesn't work with top-posting. And by top-posting you make it harder for the next person to do the right thing.