[Sussex] Top Posting [was: GP2X]

[Steven Dobson]

Gareth

On Mon, 2006-07-31 at 13:43 +0100, Gareth Ablett wrote:
> It still had context to gp2x and the moot so if you think it was top
> posting it was the mildest case of it i have ever seen.

I agree it was mild.  But top posting is still top posting and I think
you sould set an example.  This list caters for all, and a little
forethought can go a long way.

For example: You included all my post.  Why?  My greeding to you and the
sign off certainly did not need to be quoted.  You could have editted
them out.[1]

A few years ago I was trying to read my work e-mail on a really crappy
dial-up line.  There was something wrong with the hotel's phone lines,
we never got much above a 14.4K baud rate - that is slow, really slow.
It was late at night (well past midnight) and I needed to check all my
e-mails before going to sleep.  We had to use Microsoft's e-mail
solution.  So some guy in the US office had played with his settings.
His e-mail had a background, icons, fonts and a pretty signature.

It also took ages to f**king down load!!!!!!

Time I needed to sleep for the early start the next day.

That is why, IMO, top posting is bad.  In encourages one to just hit
reply (thereby quote everthing that has been said already - included the
worthless legal notices) and start typing.  I've had e-mails in which
90% of the content was worthless.  But I still had to use bandwidth to
get it.

Okay, bandwidth on the Internet is not a problem for many today.  But
there are still some who are one a slow dialup link.  Think of them.  

Top posting in and of itself is not bad.  I top post when I forward an
e-mail on to someone - its an introduction.  But in an maillist, where
it can be assumed that the readers have been following the conversation
then cutting the e-mail up in to approprate chucks and added you're
comments to the bottom is the best way.

I'll get off my soap box and go back to work now :-)

Steve

[1] I've edited the footers for both the non-digest and digest options
so the mail-list signature should be striped automaticly by your MUA.