On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 11:11 PM, Torsten Sachse <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everybody, > > one of today's emails made wonder once more why most people on this list > seem to be against top-posting as this is the way I have learnt to > reply. It might not be taught that way everywhere in Germany, but at > least where I grew up. > > What exactly is "wrong" with top-posting? If not top-posting, emails > with several levels of replies in them can get very lengthy and the new > information can be difficult to find especially if the reply is in-line. > I also don't think the assumption holds that people who top-post do not > carefully read what they reply to as I, for one, always do. > > I am not criticizing, just very curious. >
Here is a graphic example why top-posting is not intuitive: A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail? The whole issue is described well at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style and it is a good read about posting styles. Some people receive lots of emails and will probably not have a full recollection of a long thread. By bottom-posting or inline posting, the last e-mail will have the natural progression of the discussion. For top-posting to be useful, a poster would need to summarise in their reply the whole discussion. If you top-post and you say "Yes", then it's quite annoying. "Yes" to what? You need to put the extra effort to summarize. In bottom-posting, you may get a huge thread which is difficult to read. Here, what every person in a thread does, is make effort to give substantial/constructive replies so that the thread is answered or reaches a conclusion soon. It is equally annoying if the thread just goes on and on. A helpful criteria when replying is to think: Is my reply constructive that can lead to conclude this thread? Simos -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
