Doug Tucker wrote: > I know, but my point was, since we all use email to read email lists, > let's get off the old usenet etiquette, and use email etiquette, which > you will find yourself in the very minute minority that replies bottom > post. > Not on this or most any other technical list, with the probable exception of Microsoft Outlook users who seem to think they are the center of the universe and that everyone else should bow to their non-standards-compliant client's quirks. have you ever seen an email list digest? digests and archives filled with fully quoted top posted mail are completely unreadable. most of the lists I manage personally, over half the subscribers use the 'digest' (and the vast majority of these rarely if ever post). here's another good discussion on this. http://mailformat.dan.info/quoting/top-posting.html A: Because we read from top to bottom, left to right. Q: Why should I start my reply below the quoted text? A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: The lost context. Q: What makes top-posted replies harder to read than bottom-posted? A: Yes. Q: Should I trim down the quoted part of an email to which I'm replying?