Am 17.05.2014 23:22, schrieb Always Learning: > > Top posting ALWAYS makes sense when the poster has included nearly 200 > lines of redundant and time-wasting waffle from previous posters. False argument. Top-posting is nearly always combined with fully quoting the previous mailing. That is bsolutely unnecessary on a mailinglist and even a waste of resources. Strip off redundant content! > Scrolling down - all the way down - to read a few words is time wasting > and irritating. Then why not just erasing all the rubbish you don't care about? > Until posters ruthlessly exclude all redundant material, top posting > makes sense because it is the fastest and most efficient method of > conveying a response to others on the mail list. No, it just demonstrates that you as the top-poster and full quoter are not caring for the previous communication and not caring enough for a sane readable thread. If the top-poster just cares for his quick and "easy" action, then why does he reply at all? > There is an art to replying intelligently to a previous posting - > interspersing replies to the previous poster's comments BUT ALWAYS > EXCLUDING SURPLUS TEXT. full ack! > I blame M$ for introducing TOP POSTING. It makes no sense to blame a company, it is the people who don't make enough effort to help everyone on a mailinglist to follow the discussions in an efficient way by seeing the questions and answers in a quick way. Have you ever searched for something in a mailing list archive and then stumbled about a thread where proper quoting and stripping the context is wildly mixed with top-poster and full-quoter messages? It is a mess to find the helpful arguments and content. Alexander