On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 7:34 AM, Derek Homeier <derek@astro.physik.uni-goettingen.de> wrote:
In German this kind of faux pas is usually labelled "TOFU" for "text on top, full quote underneath", and I think it has been a bit overlooked so far that the "full quote" part probably is the bigger problem.
Exactly -- my original title "stop bottom posting" was a lame attempt to be a bit ironically humorous..
IOW a call to try and trim the OP more rigourously should help a lot, and I'd think most people then can agree on bottom posting
Though I'd still argue that I'd prefer top posting to bottom posting in the situation of a small comment added to a big thread. gmail is pretty good at hiding the old stuff, so it's getting less annoying, but when i go to add a comment myself, and find this huge pile of old junk to sort through and delete -- it's really annoying.
...the issue with mail clients doing that automatically - the thread in question looks quite readable in Mountain Lion's Mail.app, but a nightmare on Snow Leopard!).
Exactly -- email clients are maybe getting too smart for us -- if it looks good in yours, it may not look good in mine. Interesting that this note itself had not a lot, but still too much, worthless junk left over from the previous post... Maybe we need a short-hand for "clean up the previous parts of the thread to show only what you need to make your post relevant and clear" Paul Ivanof wrote:
... But I just came across a wonderfully short signature from Rick Moen, and thought I'd pass it along:
Cheers, A: Yes. Rick Moen > Q: Are you sure? rick@linuxmafia >> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. .com McQ! (4x80) >>> Q: Why is top posting frowned upon?
This is cute, and makes a good point, but misses the bigger issue: most interesting technical threads are not a series of linear, simple one-liners. Bottom posting is obviously the way to go for that. They are long, with multiple points, and comments on the middle parts, not just the end, and different people all commenting on the same post. It simply does not end up a neat linear conversation anyway. niether pure bottom posting nor pure top posting works well. -Chris -- Christopher Barker, Ph.D. Oceanographer Emergency Response Division NOAA/NOS/OR&R (206) 526-6959 voice 7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception Chris.Barker@noaa.gov