From: James Britt Date: 2006-09-02T07:11:52+09:00 Subject: Re: Off topic: What is "top posting" ?? William Crawford wrote: > I'm not aiming to anger anyone, or try to get people to break rules, > written or unwritten. The OP asked a serious question and everyone has > been giving serious answers. It just so happens that the entire > discussion is personal preference. > I've had this discussion with other people on other lists. I've been surprised at the vitriol it can inspire (largely, in my experience, from those who dislike being asked not to top post; apparently it is *physically painful* to avoid top posting when using Web-based list readers ). What struck me as interesting was that many people have told me that if I dislike top posting, then tough titties. But, hey, that works out fine. If I cannot quickly and easily parse a message, I skip it and move on. Less work for James is always a good thing. So the real issue may be that if you are trying to communicate with others, and are looking for a thoughtful response, should you not try to make it easier for the reader? This doesn't say whether any given reader will find top posting easier or harder to parse, but I'll bet that on this list most questions come from top posters, and most answers come from those who use inline responses. -- James Britt http://www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation http://www.artima.com/rubycs/ - The Journal By & For Rubyists http://www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff