Joe Kissell on top- vs bottom-posting
I confess. I enjoy teasing hard-core ideologues who consider
My post did, however, prompt a most sensible and balanced response from Joe Kissell, the author of Taking Control of Apple Mail in Tiger, worth quoting in full:
I generally prefer bottom posting, and mention that fact in my ebooks about Mail. But then, I also recommend selective quoting, not simply including the entire content of an email in a reply. The two practices make sense if done together, and less sense if you do only one. I wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t put a reply beneath several quoted paragraphs, because that?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s hard to read and annoying. But I would pull out a relevant sentence or two, to remind the recipient exactly what it is I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m commenting on.
A situation where I often use top posting is if an entire message makes just one point or asks one question. In that case, there?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s no reason to go to the extra effort of pulling out bits and commenting beneath them. But if a message makes multiple points or asks multiple questions, and I intend to 
address them one at a time, bottom posting is the only way to go, because it gives the recipient context for each remark.
Regrettably intelligent remarks which put teasing in its place.
Tags: email, top-postingRelated posts
December 14th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
That was a nice comment.
Of course, he didn’t address inane footers and confidentiality statements, so incessantly teasing about the traditional max 4-line signature size is still in order. :-)
December 14th, 2005 at 2:44 pm
Excellent!
Thanks for the incitement to vice :-)