Re: top posting [WAS: to show/see sb. ]

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:34:15 -0600, Lewis
<g.kreme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <vv1st3hprcd2mqmvio7e3nn7gu3fgr6v00@xxxxxxx>,
tony cooper <tony_cooper213@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:55:50 -0600, Lewis
<g.kreme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Many tens of thousands of posts and emails over more than 20 years.

I "top post" in emails. That seems to be the accepted way to respond
to an email unless the text contains a message complex enough to
require interleaving. I never "bottom post" in replying to email.

The only time I ever 'bottom' post is if I'm replying, like in this
case, to only one point in the previous post. This is not really bottom
posting, it is a special case of interleaving. True bottom posting is
just as bad, if not worse, than top posting.

I generally do not correspond with people who insist on top-posting. I
find it rather rude to get a short email, and then see my entire email
to them, often with the inclusion of headers, attached at the end. It
simply wastes my time.

I suppose that an understanding of what type of things are covered in
the email you receive is required to understand your position.

Most of the email that I receive, that I respond to, involves a
question, a request for some type of information, or some other
subject where the response is directly linked to the email that I'm
responding to.

I top post and leave the original text in the email. This allows me
to respond without repeating the question in the answer. When my
daughter emails with a question about a Photoshop technique, I can
write something like "Take it out with the clone tool" without
specifying what I'm talking about by "it" and repeating her question.

I also leave in her text because she may send me two or three emails
in one day. They may all be about Photoshop questions, so leaving her
text allows her to immediately know which question I'm responding to.

If the email is from my brother, and is of the "newsy" sort that just
brings me up to date on happenings in his family, I don't use the
"reply" function to respond. I originate a new email. If my reply
doesn't directly link to his email, I don't repeat his text.

I have family members who do it, and I put up with it from them because,
well, they're family members.

The only time I will actually top-post is when replying to a tech
support or other customer service email where it is obvious that a
different person is seeing the email each time I sent it in, and there
the entire exchange might be useful.

However, as soon as I see that I am dealing with ONE person, I revert to
interleave and strip out as much as possible on each email.

Interleaving can be dangerous when replying to tech support. There's
the possibility that the reader is used to top posting and stops
reading after the first reply section.


--

Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
.

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