[T3] Top posting vs bottom posting. Was Intermittent hesitation/stall.?

[Dave Hall]

No problem agreeing to disagree - it leaves everyone happy, or equally
unhappy.  ;-)
BTW I've changed the subject!

Dave.
UK VW Type 3&4 Club
===================

-----Original Message-----
From: type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org
[mailto:type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org] On Behalf Of Jim Adney
Sent: 08 February 2012 06:34
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] Intermittent hesitation/stall.?

On 8 Feb 2012 at 0:44, Dave Hall wrote:

> That's why I top post.  It saves trying to find the bookmark each time!

The bookmark analogy cuts both ways. With a bookmark, it's easy to back up a
bit to catch the drift of the test as I left it, and then continue on, into
fresh territory, with a clear understanding of the message.

I understand that top posting seems fine to the person writing it, but, as a
reader, I often have a hard time understanding exactly what the post is
responding to. This becomes particularly difficult when several people are
responding at the same time, to the same subject, and there are several
different topics under contention.

I completely agree that having to scroll down thru dozens of lines of quoted
material to get to the meat of the post makes no sense, but that's what the
delete key is for.

Thus, to me at least, bottom posting with careful deletions improves clarity
and makes it easier on the reader. And Dave, as a former teacher, will
certainly appreciate that saying what you mean is only half the battle: You
want to make sure the listener understands you correctly.

I have to admit that I'm occasionally stumped by a short top post, because
I'm not sure what it's in response to, and scrolling down doesn't help,
because I'm still left to guess at exactly what the comment is referring to.

OTOH, in business emails, where an exchange of emails may involve some
degree of negotiation, it may be important to preserve a complete transcript
of each message, and putting them in reverse chronological order makes
getting to the fresh data easiest. In this case, top posting carries the
advantage.

Top posting vs. bottom posting comes up here every few years, and I'm always
amazed at how contentious it is. I know we'll never agree on it, so the best
I can hope for is to encourage clarity from everyone. 

--
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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