RE: Learn how to quote ...

[Prasanna M <PrasannaM () catsglobal co in>]

Although I switch between the two, personally I am more comfy with Top
posting(for the reasons you mentioned). as well as for the fact that,  I
dont have to scroll till the end to comment on it(if its a long
conversation, then it is a pain to bottom post). 



-----Original Message-----
From: David Smith
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Sent: 11/8/2004 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: Learn how to quote ...

On 3 Nov 2004, komal commented:

> Dear list members
> I would like to request all list members please stop top posting
> and over quoting. These are defeating the very purpose of having
> mainlg list. Please go through this wonderful article on how to
> post message and reply in mailing list.

Overquoting is a particular problem with maillists, esp. Yahoo's 
Groups, all them tags & ads at the bottom.   Also helpful to do 
some trimming when you aren't responding to the whole message, 
only part of it.

As for "the standard" being bottom-posting, it is.  Top-posting 
is also "the standard."  I'm attempting to follow maybe thirty 
lists these days, some of which rather vehemently require top-
posting.  Like other community standards, either standard is 
right, depending on what list you're responding to.

The argument for top-posting is that when one reads a lot of 
messages from a list, one might well have already read the 
original message mere seconds earlier.  Seeing the response 
right away upon opening the next message saves time.

I prefer and tend to use bottom (well, really, middle) posting, 
which is what I learned in my BBSing days.  I write my response 
paragraphs between the original paragraphs, directly after what 
I'm responding to.  Gives more of a conversational feel, IMHO.

Trimming tags & footers & such is good.  I also tend to trim 
parts of the message to which I'm -not- replying.  I think this 
makes my reply more clear.  OTOH, content I trim off is not 
available in responses to my response.  That can be an issue in 
political discussions: "Well, I said that, but you misquoted me 
because I also said -this-, which makes the meaning entirely 
different...."

If the standard on this list is bottom quoting, I have no 
problem with that.  It's my habit anyway.  But I tend to reply 
in the style of the previous response, to keep things in 
sequence in which ever direction.

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