[Tutor] Stolen thread: Bottom folk vs. toppers was trouble using2to3.py

[Alan Gauld]

"Robert Berman" <bermanrl at cfl.rr.com> wrote

> The war between bottom posters and top posters has been long, arduous,
> and most often incredibly silly.

It has, I agree but there is a very real difference in that gratuitous top
posting does actually become unreadable if not done very carefully.
And it also encorages people to leave the whole previous thread in
place which is very naughty for those who pay for ther internet
access by the byte! (Or those whose mail server implements
space quotas!)

But if a general comment is being made that does not need to refer
to specific quotations from the earlier rtext then I have no problem
with top posting. Provided all but a small context quote is left below.
But please don't send me 3 pages of text to just add two sentences
at the top!!!

> I simply propose that the only requirement to communications here is
> that replies and questions be well formulated, courteous, and reasonably
> intelligent.

Ah but there's the rub, what is "well formatted"? :-)

> If there are going to be arguments pertaining to the posts, let them be
> over content and not placement.

When you are trying to respond to hundreds of emails a day a
few top posted messages can cause severe headaches. Personally I
just ignore anything that has top posting that is hard to read, I don't 
have
time to unscramble it nor to waste time asking the poster to desist.
If they post scrambled mail it doesn't get answered...

So its not quite a case of the "color of the bikeshed" because this one
does make a very real difference to the usability of the medium and
to the success of the message in reaching its full audience.

In most cases it doesn't hurt much but in longer threads it does.
So, please folks, be sensitive to your readers.

Alan G.