Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 10:40:26 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Top Posting: Putting the punch line first.
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 09:41 AM 3/28/05 -0500, Ernest Lilley wrote:
><<I agree.  I urge everyone to trim quoted text, and keep only enough
>to establish context.>>
>
>I'm with Keith on this one.

You, me and the majority of the internet over several decades...

Top posting isn't the worst alternative...it's the second worst.  The worst
is not to quote anything at all and then not provide clues in what you
write.  The most useless posts possible are the ones that look something
like this:

"Yeah, I agree.  It would be disastrous to do that."

This is a total waste of bandwidth and time for all concerned as the only
information it provides is that the author is clueless...which, unless this
is the first such posting by that person, is most likely already known.

Ok, I think I wrote too soon...I just thought of two other types that I've
seen that seem to be in a tie for last place:  the post that quotes an
entire other post and adds nothing at all (usually done by mistake), and
the one that follows that, apologizing for the prior post...which *still*
adds nothing to the discussion.

-- Mike B.
--
Madness takes it's toll.  Please have exact change.