Top-posting (was: Barracuda Networks is at it again: Any Suggestions as to anAlternative? )

[jcdill.lists at gmail.com (JC Dill)]

  On 12/04/11 6:47 AM, William Herrin wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 2:49 AM, Tim Chown<tjc at ecs.soton.ac.uk>  wrote:
>> But I'm afraid times have changed; bottom-posted email is now an annoyance
>> to most just as a slow-loading web page would be.
> Then you're doing it wrong. You're supposed to trim the original down
> to just the context that clarifies your response. That's the other
> problem with top-posters... nobody trims, so if I want to understand
> what they're attempting to say I have to scroll down, read all the
> previous messages and then guess which part they're replying to.
>
> Usually the lazy top-poster hasn't said anything worth that much effort.

An even bigger problem is that the lazy top-poster often misses critical 
issues that either clarify the post they are replying to (making their 
reply irrelevant) or forgets to reply to something critical in the 
quoted text.  I run into this often at $dayjob, where I can't ask more 
than one question in an email because the top-posted reply generally 
only addresses the first question.

The people who top post see this as a feature - they get their reply 
composed and sent off faster and can then move on to other things.  They 
don't understand why they fail to thrive in their jobs as co-workers 
start to route discussions around them and then ultimately they are the 
first to be laid off because they aren't seen as an essential part of 
the team.

jc