From: fburton@... (Francis Burton)
Date: 2008-05-28T18:50:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Top-posting

In article <4D92FD57-DCB3-4067-BF24-62A7A46211A3@mwilden.com>,
Mark Wilden  <mark@mwilden.com> wrote:
>>> These guidelines are not commonly accepted.
>>
>> Maybe not in toto, but the bit about bottom posting is!
>
>That's just an assertion, Francis, and frankly, it's formed the basis  
>of most of the arguments I've heard so far, all of which seem to boil  
>down to "you should do it because the people who say you should do say  
>you should do it." There's been precious little discussion of -why-,  
>other than to pretend that a newsgroup post is like a conversation.

It's a convention bases on sound (imo) arguments. Why bottom-posting
is a good idea has been discussed in this thread. Maybe it should be
discussed some more. One argument is simply that it is the convention,
and that it helps if everyone follows the convention.

>> The frowning upon follow-ups to your own post seems unjustified
>> too - addenda, corrections and retractions are entirely reasonable.
>
>Agreed. Things have changed since 1995. Just because one person issued  
>a request for comment 13 years ago does not make careve it carve it in  
>stone.

I'd be interested to hear exactly what has changed since 1995 that
invalidates the original reasoning.

Francis