[G4] Speeding up

[Tony Johansen]

On 12/10/2005 10:28 AM, "Tim Collier" <collierof1957 at mac.com> wrote:

> I hate when people post at the bottom of the message, it means I
> actually have to scroll down to read it

Tim I was at the centre of a long running debate earlier in the year over
this issue. I was a top poster, and I was amazed at the passionate and often
angry arguments from both sides. What it boiled down to in the end was that
there is a tradition handed down from ancient times (read anything more than
5 years ago) that tech mails are bottom posted. There is logic there in that
when answering a message with several contributions the story flows
naturally down the page and it is easier therefore for busy respondents to
skim the problem and contribute.

There is a better reason for bottom posting however, and that is when people
give their time freely and often answer dozens of questions daily across
several lists, they are justified in simply skipping poorly formatted or
impolite messages. The etiquette of tech messages (by long standing
convention) is to bottom post, to strip out html, and generally delete the
irrelevant.

I am not criticising your wonderfully full and generous response in this
thread, just thought you might appreciate knowing why the bottom posting
occurs. It's a small enough matter to follow the convention if it makes it
easier for someone, so I do myself these days.

All the best,
Tony.
http://www.tonyjohansen.com
A Life In Art