[asterisk-users] top posting again [was: Re: CDR Design]

[Justin Fletcher]

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 8:39 PM, Bill Andersen <andersen at mwdental.com>wrote:

> In the "order in which people normally read text" they don't
> repeat the entire conversation from the beginning each time
> a question is asked either...  Bottom posting is just as bad!
>
> ./bill
>
>

Posting either way can be good, bad, or ugly.  The key is consistency.

What I find most annoying is a mix of top and bottom posting within a single
mailing list or especially withing a single thread.  Mailing lists in
general have adopted the old Usenet convention of bottom posting as a
standard.

The Usenet idea, as I understand it, is that you never knew at what point
someone would begin reading a thread.  Slow servers, missed messages, and
limited retention policies meant that a reader might not see the beginning
of a thread or could miss parts of a thread.  If you always bottom post, and
snip accordingly, then the topic, context, and conversation happen in
natural top to bottom order even if parts or history is missed.

I personally prefer top posting in direct emails where the context of the
conversation is already in my mind.  For mailing lists and Usenet I prefer
to bottom post so that it remains consistent and because they are often
archived publicly.  I appreciate an archive where I can follow the flow of
conversation from top to bottom and know that I have reached a conclusion of
discussion.

Sadly the new standard seems to be "do whatever you want" which includes
breaking the existing convention on an already started thread such that
parts are top posted, parts are bottom posted, and none of the conversation
is snipped.

-Justin
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