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Message-ID: <5188AF23.9040203@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 07 May 2013 03:37:07 -0400
From: Stephen Cook <sclists@gmail.com>
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To: Craig James <cjames@emolecules.com>
CC: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: top posting?
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On 5/6/2013 2:15 PM, Craig James wrote:
> Just out of curiousity, I see comments like this all the time:
>
> > (*please* stop top-posting).
>
> I've been participating in newsgroups since UUCP days, and I've never 
> encountered a group before that encouraged bottom posting. Bottom 
> posting has traditionally been considered rude -- it forces readers to 
> scroll, often through pages and pages of text, to see a few lines of 
> original material.
>
> The most efficient strategy, one that respects other members' time, is 
> to briefly summarize your point at the TOP of a posting, then to 
> *briefly* quote only the relevant parts of the post to which you are 
> replying, and bottom-post after the quoted text. That lets your reader 
> quickly see if it's relevant or not, and move on to the next post.
>
> Contributors in these newsgroups seem to think it's OK to quote five 
> pages of someone else's response, then add one or two sentences at the 
> bottom ... it's just laziness that forces readers to wade through the 
> same stuff over and over in each thread.
>
> How did the Postgres newsgroups get started with this "only bottom 
> post" idea?
>
> (I'm not trying to start a flame war, just genuinely curious.)
>
> Craig

I always feel good when I see this post, it means I've been following a 
mailing list for a (relatively) long time...

It doesn't matter to me at all, I just go with whatever is generally 
accepted by the mailing list (or perhaps, whatever is generally accepted 
by the most vocal part of the mailing list). Although, I only ever 
really did the whole "inline snippets" thing when I'm tearing someone up 
in a flame war. Most other replies don't require the precision-quoting.

Currently I'm using Thunderbird, a web page, or various mobile apps to 
check my email, and all of them mark the quoted part well enough that I 
can skip it and see what is new, or read it knowing full well it is a 
quote. Haven't done text-only email for ages, but even back then I 
believe there were markings in the margin for what was a quote and what 
was new content.

-- Stephen



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