Re: Top posting....

On Thu, 11 May 2017 13:43:52 -0400, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
wrote:

>... 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.

Search engines often land in the middle of a conversation. Quoted
material needs to establish sufficient context for the response to
make sense.

On many occasions, a search has landed me on some site where it was
difficult to navigate threads starting from the middle.

I know we're talking about Usenet here, and Google Groups isn't too
awful[*] when approached strictly as a Usenet archive ... but proper
posting etiquette applies to other discussion mediums as well.

>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.

I agree 100%. But excessive brevity can make it so a reader can't
follow the conversation. Users of web forums often assume *you* can
easily look back up the thread because *they* can. In my experience,
it isn't always easy to do.

YMMV,
George

[*] where is a "gagging" emoji when you really need one?