From: Christopher Chaltain <cchaltain_at_austin.rr.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:52:37 -0500

Mike Miller wrote:
> Top posting can be easier to read _if_ you know the entire context;
> for example, if you have the previous mails open or memorized. It's
> much harder to read if it's viewed independantly, for example, on a
> web archive.
>
>

This is correct, although you don't have to have all of the previous
messages memorized or sitting there in front of you. If it's a high
level discussion or not too detailed, it's easy to follow the discussion
and write your top posts, using complete sentence and ideas, so that
it's clear what your responding to. For myself, I'll generally top post
if there isn't going to be any ambiguity in what I'm responding to and
I'll embed my responses in the text when I'm responding to something
point by point. In my professional emails for example, I tend to put my
replys at the top of a response for most business discussions, while for
the more technical discussions, I'll respond in line. Of course, I'll
always defer to the rule of the list I belong to. Since I've
participated in both blind related mailing lists, where top posting is
encouraged, and open source mailing lists where it's frowned on, I made
sure to read the list etiquette before my first post.

-- 
Christopher
cchaltain_at_austin.rr.com

Received on 2007-08-27