[Wylug-discuss] List Etiquette: Top Posting vs. Bottom Posting

[Dave Fisher]

On Sun, Oct 28, 2007 at 02:28:47PM +0000, Roger Beaumont wrote:
> Can I summarise what I think I've taken from this?
> 
> 1. Top vs. bottom vs. in-line seems to be a matter of different personal 
> preference - often passionately held.

I don't think that is an accurate summary.  

From what I've read so far, top-posting advocates have a greater
propensity to consider it a personal preference, whereas bottom-posting
advocates are more inclined to see objective usability problems which
need colective solutions. N.B.  I'm not suggesting for a moment that
either group is homogeneous or exclusive.

Sounds more like libertarian vs. communitarian bunfight to me, than a
problem solving colloquium for engineers ;-)

> It seems to me that a universal consensus on this is unlikely to be 
> achievable.

Yes, but I'd very much prefer less-than-universal consensus, or
widespread aqcuiescence, to no convention at all.

> 2. An almost universally shared position seems to be that it is bad 
> etiquette to waste readers' time; by no matter what means, posters should 
> minimise how long it takes to 'cut to the chase'.
> 
> I don't think it would be hard to agree on that being the underlying aim.

Agreed.

> And IMHO, if we succeed with point 2, point 1 probably doesn't matter too 
> much.

I really don't think so. 

Even with well snipped, and sensibly interleaved threads, the
requirement to toggle between top-posting and bottom-posting modes on a
regular basis is an uneccessary and painful burden.

Dave