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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Bruce et al…<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I’m posting a new thread with the “Top Posting”
subject so I won’t draw complaints about “hijacking” the
4-port thread.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Top Posting refers to the practice of sending a message with
a reply at the top and including the entire thread below the reply. I prefer
this. If I’m actively following a thread, the most-recent information
appears at the top of the message I receive. If I’ve missed part of the
thread, I need to look only at the most recent message and scroll down a bit to
see what’s been happening.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Bottom Posting requires me to scroll through all of the
history before I see the newest addition.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>While scrolling down, I may see something new and realize
that the sender has interleaved responses, addressing multiple points with
individual responses.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>It’s been a while, but when I researched “Top
Posting” I found this Wikipedia description:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>“</span></font>Top-posting is a natural consequence of
the behavior of the "reply" function in many current e-mail readers,
such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook"
title="Microsoft Outlook">Microsoft Outlook</a>, <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail" title=Gmail>Gmail</a>, and others. By
default, these programs insert into the reply message a copy of the original
message (without headers and often without any extra indentation or quotation
markers), and position the editing <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursor_%28computers%29"
title="Cursor (computers)">cursor</a> above it. Moreover, a bug present on most
flavours of Microsoft Outlook caused the quotation markers to be lost when
replying in plain text to a message that was originally sent in HTML/RTF. In
addition, users of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_device"
title="Handheld device">mobile devices</a>, like <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry" title=BlackBerry>BlackBerries</a>,
are encouraged to use top-posting, because the devices only download the
beginning of a message for viewing. The rest of the message is only retrieved
when needed, which takes additional download time. Putting the relevant content
at the beginning of the message requires less bandwidth, less time, and less
scrolling for the Blackberry user.<sup id="cite_ref-3"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#cite_note-3">[4]</a><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#cite_note-4">[5]</a><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#cite_note-5">[6]</a></sup> For
these and possibly other reasons, many users seem to accept top-posting as the
"standard" reply style.”<font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>…and an </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>explanation of why people complain
about it:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>“Objections
to top-posting on newsgroups, as a rule, seem to come from persons who first
went online in the earlier days of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet"
title=Usenet>Usenet</a>, and in communities that date to Usenet's early days.
Until the mid-90s, top-posting was unknown and interleaved posting an obvious
standard that all net.newcomers had to learn. Among the most vehement
communities are those in the Usenet <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comp.*_hierarchy" title="Comp.* hierarchy"><i><span
style='font-style:italic'>comp.lang</span></i> hierarchy</a>, especially
comp.lang.c and comp.lang.c++. Top-posting is more tolerated on the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt.*_hierarchy" title="Alt.* hierarchy"><i><span
style='font-style:italic'>alt</span></i> hierarchy</a>. Newer online
participants, especially those with limited experience of Usenet, tend to be
less sensitive to arguments about posting style.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>When
I post (which is rarely, as I have little to offer the list), I top post and
explain that it’s my preference and I don’t know how to do it
effectively otherwise. This gives everyone fair warning to delete my posts
before reading them.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>--Don</span></font><span lang=EN><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>Don Kelly</span></font><span lang=EN><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>PCF Corp<br>
People Come First<br>
651 842-1000<br>
888 Don Kell(y)<br>
651 842-1001 fax</span></font><span lang=EN><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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