[HPFGU-Feedback] Re: Mail Formats (was Re: An Elfly Reminder)

[Jordan Abel]

> Dan T.:
> But, up until the point that was brought up, this discussion had the
> apparent distinction of being the longest and most heated discussion
> / debate / argument over reply formatting I ever recall seeing in any
> forum / mailing list / newsgroup / board which did *not* (yet)
> include any advocacy regarding top-posting (either pro or con).

Random832:
Well - in all seriousness, the biggest issue with top-posting is that
it's so easy to forget to cut things down, since the person writing
the message doesn't have to scroll down through it before beginning
the reply. So while they are an underlying cause of a serious problem,
I think it's a mistake to view top-posting as being a problem _in and
of itself_. It could, in theory, be very effective to write a
well-organized message (regardless of anything else, interleaved
posting encourages poor organization) without any quoting or
paraphrasing except when absolutely necessary, and include the text of
the original message (without any second-level quotes unless
absolutely necessary), or at least the part that's being responded to,
at the bottom for reference. The only problem is that it's so easy to
forget to remove the second-level quotes.