4 ms·

Maybe you should read the entire page? It specifically warns against top posting and quoting the entire email you're replying to. So if people followed this ad

Maybe you should read the entire page? It specifically warns against top posting and quoting the entire email you're replying to. So if people followed this advice you wouldn't have to scroll a kilometer for attachments (unless someone actually wrote an email that long).

tjoff 7y ago
I don't know if I've ever seen bottom-posting in my life. They have particular weak arguments against that as well. It is very useful when forwarding a message or including someone else as cc.
- Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
  When forwarding a message you should include the thread as RFC 2822 attachments (RFC number recited from memory, may be wrong). Your mail client should make this easy for you.
- scbrg 7y ago
  It is very useful for you, the sender. It is a nightmare for the receiver. Whenever I receive one of those forwarded top posted thirty mail long horrors I just ignore everything and hope I can guess context from whatever you wrote in the last email. The alternative is to spend an hour deciphering the blob of goo that is actual mail messages mixed with signatures, attachments, all being meaningless replies to questions I haven't yet read - because top posting. Sending me such a thing is equivalent to telling me "Fuck you, your time is worth nothing to me."
  - tjoff 7y ago
    I feel it is very informative as the recipient. Yes, everything you need to know ought to be in the mail itself but often you need context or surrounding details or just some information as to why the question arose. You can in the very most cases figure that out by skimming a couple of previous mails in the thread. Very quick and saves another round trip, which can be very annoying if you are on different time-zones.
  - Dayshine 7y ago
    >The alternative is to spend an hour deciphering the blob of goo that is actual mail messages mixed with signatures, attachments You mention attachments, which implies you've been included in all the previous emails. In which case, your email client should be splitting them (often referred to as "conversation" view). Otherwise, how does it make any difference if the infinite nesting is at the top or the bottom? Or by "top posting" do you just mean replies without trimming?
    - scbrg 7y ago
      I would say that top posting does mean replies without trimming. In theory, they're not the same, of course. In practice, I've seen top posting with trimming a total of... well, zero times. And in either case, reading something from top to bottom is certainly easier than to read something in the order of: Last 3% of the message, followed by the bits that are 93-97% into the message, followed by the bits that are at 86-93% of the message, followed by the bits... every email is like watching Memento. With each scene in whatever typeface that particular person's email client thought was a good idea to enforce upon me. And sometimes purple.

tjoff 7y ago

I don't know if I've ever seen bottom-posting in my life. They have particular weak arguments against that as well. It is very useful when forwarding a message or including someone else as cc.

Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
When forwarding a message you should include the thread as RFC 2822 attachments (RFC number recited from memory, may be wrong). Your mail client should make this easy for you.
scbrg 7y ago
It is very useful for you, the sender. It is a nightmare for the receiver. Whenever I receive one of those forwarded top posted thirty mail long horrors I just ignore everything and hope I can guess context from whatever you wrote in the last email. The alternative is to spend an hour deciphering the blob of goo that is actual mail messages mixed with signatures, attachments, all being meaningless replies to questions I haven't yet read - because top posting. Sending me such a thing is equivalent to telling me "Fuck you, your time is worth nothing to me."
- tjoff 7y ago
  I feel it is very informative as the recipient. Yes, everything you need to know ought to be in the mail itself but often you need context or surrounding details or just some information as to why the question arose. You can in the very most cases figure that out by skimming a couple of previous mails in the thread. Very quick and saves another round trip, which can be very annoying if you are on different time-zones.
- Dayshine 7y ago
  >The alternative is to spend an hour deciphering the blob of goo that is actual mail messages mixed with signatures, attachments You mention attachments, which implies you've been included in all the previous emails. In which case, your email client should be splitting them (often referred to as "conversation" view). Otherwise, how does it make any difference if the infinite nesting is at the top or the bottom? Or by "top posting" do you just mean replies without trimming?
  - scbrg 7y ago
    I would say that top posting does mean replies without trimming. In theory, they're not the same, of course. In practice, I've seen top posting with trimming a total of... well, zero times. And in either case, reading something from top to bottom is certainly easier than to read something in the order of: Last 3% of the message, followed by the bits that are 93-97% into the message, followed by the bits that are at 86-93% of the message, followed by the bits... every email is like watching Memento. With each scene in whatever typeface that particular person's email client thought was a good idea to enforce upon me. And sometimes purple.