[OS X TeX] Re: [OS X TeX]

[Alex Scorpan]

Bottom-posting sucks.

It forces you to spend a lot more time scanning the (at least) 20 or  
so messages you gets from the list daily, because you have to scroll  
to the bottom of each message to get a glimpse whether the message  
adds anything of interest to you or not.  Often you have to scroll  
through several pages of one message to read one line of new content.

After all, you are reading the subject lines and following down the  
threads---you can survive having the reminder on the bottom.

Alex



> I have yet to see decisive arguments for bottom-posting. The  
> following should not be construed as an attempt to provide a  
> decisive argument in favor of top posting; but it is an argument  
> against bottom-posting.
>
> If one is following a thread, one might have in mind the preceding  
> messages in the conversation. In such a case the repetition of the  
> previous message(s) at the top --- especially in the fourth message  
> in a thread --- could conceivably be inefficient for the reader.  
> One might think of a top-posted message as one that puts the news  
> first and provides a reminder of the conversation as a sequence of  
> nested footnotes, as it were. A conscientious top poster might  
> consider starting his/her post by summarizing the argument so far,  
> or at least use an introductory topic sentence, and perhaps  
> consider avoiding indexical references to previous posts (e.g.,  
> "this argument" rather than "the argument that ... ").
> _____________________________
> Professor Michael Kubovy



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