Kai Ponte wrote: > > This is actually a very cool response. Thanks, will! I had googled this > > and > > found only belligerant and snide remarks about how bottom posting is > > "better" > > blah, blah, blah... > > > > Unfornately, it is the case that some huge number of corporate email > > systems > > use top posting as the default. In addition, some number of home email > > systems also top post by default. > > > > I even tried settting Outlook to bottom post (yes you can configure Outlook > > to > > bottom post) but got frustrated at everyone else's unwillingness to comply. > > >
As has been hinted at already, corporate email is very different than Usenet newsgroup postings and public mailing lists. The needs are different, and top posting is indeed called for most of the time in that environment. Consider that an end user and a customer service rep discuss a software usability problem and how to reproduce it. They send several emails back and forth, until the customer service rep thinks she understands the problem. Then they bring it to the attention of the business analyst responsible for that feature by including her in the Cc addresses. The business analyst can read from the bottom up to catch up on all that's gone before, but once having done that, can read just the top posts, as the end user and the customer service rep have been doing. "Yep, that's the way it's designed to work." Now a developer needs to be brought in to discuss the feasibility of a code change. Rinse and repeat. With some idea how to fix the problem, and the developer's advice about how long it might take and what resources would be required, a product manager is brought in to decide what product release the fix should be scheduled for. The product manager will probably need to clear it with the quality assurance manager, depending on how risky the fix is presumed to be. As every new person is involved, that person can move down through the thread as far as necessary to get up to speed with the others. This differs a lot from our situation. We don't bring folks into the conversation one at a time as needed, but everyone is invited to every thread, should they choose to become involved. We don't need to make sure that each new participant has all the foregoing message content available, because each new participant already has it all available. Our messages can be much more concise, and flow much more logically, than those in a typical business environment. Those of us who encourage bottom posting and quote trimming _here_ don't presume to tell others how to conduct their business and personal one-to-one emails. It's up to them to decide what makes sense for them. We're only saying that _here_, in a public forum, one should abide by the rules set by the list administrators and customs that make sense in this particular context. There are many good reasons for those particular rules, most of which have been already been enumerated. Fortunately, most decent mail clients make it easy to go either way. There's even a good add-on for Outlook Express, called OEQuoteFix (Google it ... it's free) that makes bottom posting easy with that client, and adds other enhancements. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
