[T3] Intermittent hesitation/stall.?

[Jim Adney]

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. 

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