On Mon, 1 Sep 2003 16:33:10 +0100, Dave wrote:

Can someone explain why "bottom posting" is considered better than "top
posting"...

Part of the draft FAQ for uk.net.beginners.


When you make a post to a newsgroup, it might be read by as many as 50 or
100 other people who subscribe to that newsgroup. It might be read within
a few minutes, it might be read several days later. Any one of those
individuals might want to make a comment about your post, so the thread can
branch off in several directions. *A thread is not a sequential
conversation*. That requires a certain degree of good manners and
consideration towards other people.

What do you mean, good manners and consideration?

Remember that not everyone will have followed a thread from it's beginning.
Someone may drop in on a thread when it's part way through. They won't have
a clue about what has been said earlier, they will only see the particular
message that they've chosen to read. That requires some rules for how you
post messages.

What are those rules?

When you make a post in response to someone else's post, you may only be
commenting about one or two details in that earlier post. It's good manners
to snip out all the irrelevant stuff, without altering the sense of the
original poster's (OP) comments. When you do that you usually show it by
inserting snip where you have deleted their comments. You then add your
comments underneath the OP's comments. Generally, this is called snipping,
interleaving and bottom posting.

Who enforces those rules?

No one! They're a convention, primarily so that whoever reads your post
sees the context in which they're written.

I see messages where someone has posted comments at the top, not the
bottom. This seems quicker and easier, and my newsreader seems to place the
curser at the top anyway. Why shouldn't I top post?

Remember that proper newsgroup posting is a consideration for others, to
help subsequent readers of your post read your comments in their proper
context. If you post your comments at the top and away from the previous
poster's comments, then any subsequent reader will have to scroll through
the whole post to try and make sense of yours and the previous poster's
comments. It isn't so much about what is easiest for you, it's much more
about what are good manners towards others.

What happens if I decide to carry on top posting?

Nothing, no one will come after you with a big stick, although you may get
quite a lot of experienced poster making some very rude - flame - comments
to you. Many experienced posters choose to totally ignore top posters, so
your words of wisdom may never get read anyway. *The choice is yours.*

What about if I forget now and then?

We can all make occasional mistakes, you won't be heavily criticised for
that, but as time goes on, you will find that proper posting style becomes
second nature.