I would say that most people don't read every e-mail that goes through a list. It would me sense then that if a user is actually interested in a post, they will already know what the topic or origional question is because they most likely read the first message of the thread.
However, it is still nice to have reply put into the context. Some questions are complex, some discussions are complex. Without context, it might be hard to figure out which part of complex discussion somebody comment relates to.
I find it annoying to have to scroll to the bottom of a post that has five responses to it when there is only a line to read.
Ah, that one is completely different problem. It is the problem of people not deleting unrelevant parts from quoted text. I am very likely to skip such posts, be it top or bottom posting. In them, it is usually impossible to find who replied to what part of previous person's text.
I agree with Jack when it comes to my location of reply. If they have started in the middle of the set of e-mails, they can scroll down to catch up.
Usually, there is no need to stumble through complete quotes of previous 5 or 10 or 15 emails. If things are properly quoted. If I am really interested into the topic, it saves me huge amounts of time if quotes are properly done (not relevant parts deleted, replies bellow relevant part of quote). Furthermore, properly quoted text often fits on a single page (as viewed on screen). No scrolling needed. When it doesn't fit, it is usually complex reply, and there is some quoted text and some parts of reply on the first screen.
Anyhow, what I hate is when people just fire their reply, without removing unrelevant parts of original text. It doesn't matter if it is top or bottom, in both cases they are pain to read. If the person removed unrelevant parts, it is much easier to read when reply is at the bottom, than when it is on top. Actually, when I'm short with time, I'm often finding myself simply skipping top-posted replies.
-- Aleksandar Milivojevic <amilivojevic@xxxxxx> Pollard Banknote Limited Systems Administrator 1499 Buffalo Place Tel: (204) 474-2323 ext 276 Winnipeg, MB R3T 1L7
