For all you top posters out there, this is for you...

[Shane Hathaway]

Michael L Torrie wrote:
> People who think as you do are using e-mail as either a glorified
> letter-writing system, or as a glorified text-messaging system.  Knowing
> you, e-mail to you is a text-messaging system where most things are
> short.  Thus your google conversations works fine.  But I use e-mail in
> a larger context where often several important questions are asked or
> points are made that require a detailed response to each one.
> Top-posting to this is silly since a) I might miss something and b) it
> might not always be clear to the recipient which questions I'm answering.

It's all about context.  When I write to a mailing list such as this 
one, I am writing to a group of very Internet-savvy people, so I use the 
sophisticated conventions appropriate for the audience.  When I write an 
email for people at work, many of the recipients only understand the 
simplest email conventions, so I top-post out of respect for them.

IMHO, top-posting on a technical mailing list is like wearing a suit to 
a beach party.  Rather than argue with the top-posters, however, I 
prefer to just watch them flounder. ;-)

Shane