Quoting "Drew, Bill" <drewwe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 19:20:52 > I have noticed something different on a couple of linux lists in the way > people write replies to messages. > The replies are always at the bottom after the quoted part of the > earlier message. This is no the rule on the many other lists I > subscribe to. I am more curious as to why this is the case. This is > not a complaint at all. I'll give you an example. Which one is more readable: A: Because people read from top to bottom Q: Why should I reply on bottom? or this one: Q: Why should I reply on bottom? A: Because people read from top to bottom Basically, before Microsoft "discovered" email and Internet, replying at the bottom was de facto standard for any form of communication on the Internet (normal mail, mailing lists, news groups). New Microsoft's product Outlook Express defaulted to placing cursor above quoted text, and default formatting of quoted text was such that it was hard for a user to write reply in normal and logical way (after the text (s)he was replaying to). Consecvently, users were discouraged to delete unrelevant parts of quoted text. The timing couldn't be worse. It was the time when Internet was starting to become widespread amongst "normal" users. They used what they got pre-installed on their new PCs: Windows with Inetrnet Explorer and Outlook Express. That is (in short) the story how something good that was made by many was destroyed by the ignorance of the few. Today, replaying on bottom or on the top is considered personal preference. However, I still find responding on bottom not to be matter of preference, but rather to be good etiquette. Many of my friends are hard-core top-posters, and tend to quote 100+ lines of text just to add "ha ha, that's a good one" or even worse "me too". All of them told me that my replies are much more readble. But they continue to reply at top simply because (they said that, not me) they are simply too lazy to be bothered how their replies look like. Which is kind of sad. -- Aleksandar Milivojevic <amilivojevic@xxxxxx> Pollard Banknote Limited Systems Administrator 1499 Buffalo Place Tel: (204) 474-2323 ext 276 Winnipeg, MB R3T 1L7
