[WikiEN-l] Re: [OT] Top posting

Sun Sep 11 16:00:56 UTC 2005

On 9/11/05, Daniel P. B. Smith <dpbsmith at verizon.net> wrote:
> > From: MacGyverMagic/Mgm <macgyvermagic at gmail.com>
> >
> > What is top posting anyway?
> 
> A handy stick with which older netizens can beat newbies.
> 
> At some time in the mid-1990s, many people without USENET access
> acquired it. Some USENET oldtimers resented this. One characteristic
> of the newbies was many of them used some piece of software,
> Microsoft Outlook Express perhaps, was configured in such a way that
> by default if you just typed a reply it went at the top of the
> message, above the material to which it was replying.
> 
> At about that time, in some newsgroups, people started viciously
> attacking the practice of "top-posting" and asserting that it was bad
> netiquette.
> 
> I've participated in USENET since about 1990. At that time, bottom
> posting was the norm but top posting was not at all uncommon. It was
> a matter of personal style and nobody ever commented on it. It is
> simply not true that there was any prohibition on it.
> 
> There is an unofficial RFC 1855, e.g. http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/
> rfc1855.html which is sometime quoted as deprecating top-posting. But
> it is clear from context that the point of the RFC is _primarily_
> concerned with _not_ quoting the the entire original ("It is
> extremely bad form to simply reply to a message by including all the
> previous message: edit out all the irrelevant material"), and the
> fact that it mentions putting the summary at the top seems
> incidental. The actual text is:
> 
> "If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you
> summarize the original at the top of the message, or include just
> enough text of the original to give a context. This will make sure
> readers understand when they start to read your response. Since
> NetNews, especially, is proliferated by distributing the postings
> from one host to another, it is possible to see a response to a
> message before seeing the original. Giving context helps everyone.
> But do not include the entire original!"
> 
> It is very much like splitting an infinitive. Don't split infinitives
> if you know your copy will be edited by someone who thinks there's
> something wrong with splitting infinitives. But do know that these
> people have nothing to back themselves up with; even Fowler's English
> Usage sees nothing wrong with it.
> 
> Similarly if you are participating in a group that contains people
> that dislike top-posting, don't do it. But don't be gulled into
> believing that there's more here than personal taste.
> 
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I've only been on computers for 10 years, and I really see no problem
with putting it either way. Gmail/firefox automatically make my cursor
at the top... --~~~~