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Top posting won because that's what makes sense to most of the world. I don't think so. Actually I don't think top posting has "won". What has won is not carin

by narag 7y ago

Top posting won because that's what makes sense to most of the world. I don't think so. Actually I don't think top posting has "won". What has won is not caring about how you reply and going with what happens when you do nothing. People that top post never looks much at the quotes. They stop reading when they reach the blue lines. They read a couple quoted lines at best. So it's not a question of where you place the quoted text, but a question of if you use quoted text at all.

bachmeier 7y ago
What has won is not caring about how you reply That's not what won, it's a description of how people use email. Very few people care about the whole conversation, and when they do, it's at the bottom of a top posted message and inside their email inbox. Email is a work tool. Everything related to bottom posting is a strange hobby.
- einpoklum 7y ago
  > it's a description of how people are forced to use email There, FTFY.
- narag 7y ago
  Very few people care about the whole conversation... So the obvious thing to do would be quoting nothing, unless you specifically tell the mail client to include quotes. That would prevent the useless snowballing. Selective quoting is a way to enhance communication by providing context. If you aren't going to bother, there's no reason to include the garbage. When it was a hot topic, there was a very tangible problem for mail lists in which some members were on dial-up in countries with terrible communications. Not trimming quotes was disrespectful to them so most lists had rules about it. Now it seems there is enough bandwidth everywhere, the only issue is that all that quotes are just useless, a cruft from a questionable decision of the authors of Outlook. Everything related to bottom posting is a strange hobby. In my experience, people that has been recently introduced to email are oblivious to quoting styles. The hostility comes from those who ignored the rules of some community and were scolded for it.

by narag 7y ago

bachmeier 7y ago

What has won is not caring about how you reply That's not what won, it's a description of how people use email. Very few people care about the whole conversation, and when they do, it's at the bottom of a top posted message and inside their email inbox. Email is a work tool. Everything related to bottom posting is a strange hobby.

einpoklum 7y ago
> it's a description of how people are forced to use email There, FTFY.
narag 7y ago
Very few people care about the whole conversation... So the obvious thing to do would be quoting nothing, unless you specifically tell the mail client to include quotes. That would prevent the useless snowballing. Selective quoting is a way to enhance communication by providing context. If you aren't going to bother, there's no reason to include the garbage. When it was a hot topic, there was a very tangible problem for mail lists in which some members were on dial-up in countries with terrible communications. Not trimming quotes was disrespectful to them so most lists had rules about it. Now it seems there is enough bandwidth everywhere, the only issue is that all that quotes are just useless, a cruft from a questionable decision of the authors of Outlook. Everything related to bottom posting is a strange hobby. In my experience, people that has been recently introduced to email are oblivious to quoting styles. The hostility comes from those who ignored the rules of some community and were scolded for it.