On Wed, Jan 09, 2008 at 12:43:03PM -0600, Elvedin Trnjanin wrote: > If we assume that the typical poster isn't clueless and know which parts > of an original message to cut out or if they're addressing multiple > points from an earlier message, they'll format their reply properly, > then it would make more sense to top post. Why would you want to scroll > all the way to the bottom to get the newest message? Scrolling down a message is fast and easy with my usual email client, and I can scan the old material to remind myself of the context as I scrolling. Scrolling all the way to bottom to get context, and then going back to the top to read the message is annoying, and goes against the usual convention of reading down the page. > It also makes more > sense when your (web)mail client has a message preview feature. Not to me. Especially with list messages, the context in the preview panel will remind me if I am even interested in reading the message or whether I just want to delete it immediately (as I am sure many people are going to do to this message). If you prefer to ignore the context in the preview panel or elsewhere, many clients can be setup to hide the context till you expand it. > But if that assumption fails, no amount of suggestions on formatting or > style are going to help. I would argue that bottom/inline posting fails more gracefully. If you bottom post it is natural to look back at the original post, and then notice that you should trim some of it. Top posting encourages people to leave the entire original thread untouched below what they are writing. -- Jim Crumley |Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List (TCLUG) Ruthless Debian Zealot |http://www.mn-linux.org/ Never laugh at live dragons |