[Tfug] top/bottom and middle posting

[Glen Pfeiffer]

On Mon Feb 16, 2009 at 05:22:30PM -0700, Paul Lemmons wrote:
> I am not a stickler for top or bottom posting but when there is 
> a mix it  makes posts almost impossible to follow. Netiquette 
> dictates fairly bluntly that bottom posting is how one should  
> reply to a post. 

Bottom posting where you leave the entire email thread intact and 
tack on your reply to the end, is lazy and does not aid anyone 
much. It was in fact was used by others who replied to your post. 
I find it horribly annoying.

Top posting is the same as the above definition of bottom 
posting, except that you insert your comments at the top. I find
preferable to bottom posting as defined above.

Inline replying consists of selective quoting. You only leave 
those parts of the original email that you are replying to. It 
takes a bit more work, but really aids in understanding. They key 
to this method is to *delete* anything that does not have to be 
there for your email to make sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Inline_replying

> While I recognize that almost every windows email program in 
> the world top posts, it is not all that tough to scroll to the 
> bottom to type in a response. 

It is not a problem if you practice inline replying. The cursor 
is placed at the top so that you may delete the irrelevant text 
as you scroll down the email.

> I vote for bottom posting because I think the Netiquette folks 
> are right on this one. What do you all think?

My vote is for inline replying. I hate pure bottom posting as 
much as I do pure top posting.

-- 
Glen 

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the 
Father except through me."  [John 14:6]