On Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:16:09 +0100, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

It is the normal convention on usenet to quote some of the posting to
which one is replying, so that anyone joining the thread can get some
idea of what you're on about.

Yes no contention there, but the point was -- which is the lesser of the
two evils if snipping is not practical -- top posting on top of a wholly
regurgitated article, or just the response?

I would argue that the latter is less worse because in most cases one
can read the previous article in the thread if one needs the context.