Why top posting is bad

[K.I.L.E.R]

http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html

I didn't see it that way (I always assumed people already read previous things so you read the name of teh quoted person then the answer).
From now on I will change my posting style.

 

[Davros]

my fav is when someone qoutes a post complete with every picture in the quoted post plus every quote in the quoted post

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

I hate that, it forces me to scroll.

 

[Zaphod]

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in forums, on usenet and in e-mail?

 

[Simon F]

Now if only MS "LookOut!" had an option to format email replies correctly, life would be so much better.

 

[AlNom]

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in forums, on usenet and in e-mail?

I'll take Posting Etiquette for $1000, Alex.

 

[Zaphod]

Now if only MS "LookOut!" had an option to format email replies correctly, life would be so much better.

http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/outlook-quotefix/
http://quotefix.flupp.de/

 

[I.S.T.]

I've done that maybe twice in the 7 years I've been posting stupid **** on the Intarwebs. >.>

 

[Gubbi]

At work: I sent a tech question to a tech guy in another company with a cc: to my manager and a cc: to a manager at a third party. For some unknown reason he replied to the wrong guy, the third party manager (who is a cerfied moron)

I received the answer yesterday, it had been forwarded no less than nine times between clueless people, everytime with a short top-posted comment.

Complete aggravation!! I had been critized two times for not looking into the matter. The tech guy at the other company had answered within 10 minutes of receiving my email - before christmas.

They say electronic communication boosts productivity. They are wrong.

Cheers

 

[Simon F]

http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/outlook-quotefix/
http://quotefix.flupp.de/

Now is there a version for the g-awful HTML posts as well?

Anyway, I'm off to give that a try! Have 100 non-existent rep points in the mean time.

UPDATE: I couldn't work out what the heck one is supposed to do to install the second one but the first does the job nicely. Cheers

 

[Bludd]

Actually, I have no problems with top posting in emails, but I detest it in forums such as these.

:shrug:

 

[Acert93]

http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/outlook-quotefix/
http://quotefix.flupp.de/

Thanks for the links. I think I may give those a try

 

[Humus]

Actually, I have no problems with top posting in emails, but I detest it in forums such as these.

:shrug:

Agreed. In emails it makes sense to have the most recent stuff at the top so you don't have to scroll down in every message to read the relevant text. However, if I want to address a particular snippet of the quoted text I generally copy it up and type my response below that.

 

[Simon F]

Agreed. In emails it makes sense to have the most recent stuff at the top so you don't have to scroll down in every message to read the relevant text.

So have you never received an email that has passed through a chain of, say, 10 people and tried to decipher W.T.H. it was about? It's painful with top posting.

For the case where you have seen the history previously, is there not the "end" key to get down to the bottom?

 

[Gubbi]

So have you never received an email that has passed through a chain of, say, 10 people and tried to decipher W.T.H. it was about? It's painful with top posting.

Humus has a point about the newest being the most relevant. The main problem with top-posting is that emails *never* get trimmed.

When you have to write a response with proper netiquette you skim down through the post and automatically weed out all irrelevant information.

Cheers

 

[Simon F]

Humus has a point about the newest being the most relevant.

I'd debate that.
Have you never got an email where the top line read something like "copying to [insert name here] as he knows about [xyz]"

You then have to go to almost the bottom, read down, jump up a bit, read down, jump up a bit more .... Following linked lists is for computers, not humans!

 

[Gubbi]

I'd debate that.
Have you never got an email where the top line read something like "copying to [insert name here] as he knows about [xyz]"

You then have to go to almost the bottom, read down, jump up a bit, read down, jump up a bit more .... Following linked lists is for computers, not humans!

I'm not disagreeing, in fact what you describe is exactly my objection to top-posting: That emails aren't trimmed. Only text relevant to your response should be left in your response.

And I think top-posting is what induces this bad behaviour.

Cheers

 

[Humus]

So have you never received an email that has passed through a chain of, say, 10 people and tried to decipher W.T.H. it was about? It's painful with top posting.?

I've had many of those, can't recall I've ever had a problem.

For the case where you have seen the history previously, is there not the "end" key to get down to the bottom?

Well, if the message is long, you then have to scroll up a bit to get to the start of that message. But the biggest problem is that you have to have the reading pane in focus for that to work, otherwise you're going to the bottom of the message list. If I have a list of dozen responses in a thread I'd rather just want to click down-array to get to the next message than have to go back and forth between the reading pane and the message area.

 

[Frank]

Well, it's just another logic and common sense versus Microsoft argument.

I really don't like top posting, but when I answer email the correct way, I get complaints. So, I don't.

All in all, it's mostly very inconvenient, because it requires you to read all previous responses from the bottom to the top, with lots of scrolling up and down.

 

[Frank]

I've had many of those, can't recall I've ever had a problem.

Well, if the message is long, you then have to scroll up a bit to get to the start of that message. But the biggest problem is that you have to have the reading pane in focus for that to work, otherwise you're going to the bottom of the message list. If I have a list of dozen responses in a thread I'd rather just want to click down-array to get to the next message than have to go back and forth between the reading pane and the message area.

Don't you ever feel the need to read the whole discussion? The top post says it all, or if it doesn't and you didn't receive all the intermediate posts, there is no reason to read and reply?