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From: "G.A.M. " <x0zero@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
Subject: Re: etiquette (top-posting or bottom posting)
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 15:19:47 +0000 (UTC)
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"Steven Lord" <slord@mathworks.com> wrote in message
<fbmcvn$h93$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> 
> "Dan Hensley" <somewhere@over.there> wrote in message 
> news:1bWdnQoblpLxh0PbnZ2dnUVZ_s_inZ2d@comcast.com...
> > G.A.M. wrote:
> >> Do people here prefer top-posting or bottom posting? (See
> >> definition below.) I usually use top-posting, but I see a
> >> lot of people here using bottom posting.
> 
> I prefer mid-posting/interleaved, as I think of newsgroup
postings as sort 
> of a Q&A session.  You ask, I answer, and we alternate.

> > "Dan Hensley" <somewhere@over.there> wrote 
> > I prefer interleaving, and I try to leave some
whitespace between quoted 
> > blocks and my text to make it easier to read.
> 
> Agreed.


Agreed as well, with a couple caveats. Interleaved without
whitespace it very, very difficult to read/follow - it is
common to miss parts of the discussion. However, I can be
happy with interleaved when judicious whitespace is used.

Unfortunately, the Matlab Central web interface (which is
what I use) makes the interleaved style very, very difficult
to use when replying. The web interface wraps the lines with
a narrow line break setting and it becomes difficult to read
the text, much less make an orderly reply with any
efficiency. Does anyone else in favor of interleaved use the
web interface? If so, what's the solution to replying
efficiently and orderly with interleaved?


> 
> >> Also, what's the group's consensus on quoting the original
> >> post? Should we snip it down to the minimum or keep it all?
> 
> Keep the relevant pieces.  The attributions for anybody
whose text you're 
> quoting are all "relevant pieces", in my opinion.  

This sounds reasonable to me as well. However, I put way too
much effort into this reply and I'm still not sure it is
going to flow the way I intended and have the attributions I
intended because of the limitations of the web interface. In
fact, this one reply has made me realize that I probably
can't continue with this combination of interleaved
responses and the Matlab web interface. It's just too
difficult and time consuming.

Maybe I'll go with bottom posting and trimming as long as
I'm using the Matlab web interface...

> 
> > Top-posting is evil, and so is bottom-posting if you
don't trim the 
> > quotes.  


Top-posting is definitely not evil. Just ask anyone who is
visually impaired and needs accessibility tools. The people
I know in this situation will praise you for using top
posting. Top posting has many other advantages, however, I
think the group's consensus is that top-posting isn't
preferred here so I'll be happy not to use it here.

P.S. I seem to have missed a lot of responses to this thread
and I also received some out of order (significantly delayed).