Re: Top posting....

Francisco Olarte <folarte(at)peoplecall(dot)com> writes:
> Slightly unrelated...
> On Wed, May 10, 2017 at 11:21 PM, Gavin Flower
> <GavinFlower(at)archidevsys(dot)co(dot)nz> wrote:
>> It is normal on this list not to top post, but rather to add comments at the
>> end (so people can see the context) - though interspersed comments in the
>> body of the text is okay when appropriate!

> I'd rather say interspersed comments with the TRIMMED text body is the
> appropiate thing to do.

Absolutely. The point of quoting previous messages is not to replicate
the entire thread in each message; we have archives for that. The point
is to *briefly* remind readers what it is that you're responding to.
If you can't be brief, you are disrespecting your readers by wasting their
time. They've probably already read the earlier part of the thread anyway.

Personally, when I've scrolled down through a couple of pages of quoted
and re-quoted text and see no sign of it ending any time soon, I tend
to stop reading.

Another point is to please put a blank line or so between quoted text
and your own comment. If you don't provide that visual separation,
you're again making it hard for readers to find what you're adding.

Getting a bit more philosophical: top-posting and not bothering to
trim the quoted material actually work fine together. You're putting
more cognitive burden on the readers if they don't already remember
what the discussion is, but if you're responding to a five-minute-old
message that probably isn't an issue. The trim-quotes-and-reply-below
style evolved for discussions that might last over days, where readers
can benefit from a quick reminder. Bottom posting without trimming
is just an awful combination: whatever you do, don't do that.

regards, tom lane