"Teamcasa" wrote

As far as I'm concerned, pick something - top, bottom or if the subject line
has the question, delete all and just answer. In the long run - who really cares?

Bottom posting wastes people's time by scrolling thru huge texts just
to find a few words. Top posting wastes disk space on news
servers and many people are going to scroll down to the bottom,
wondering whether you have anything more to say. These problems
are multiplied when you quote an entire posting that in turn quotes an
entire posting.

--
The "--" means to anything under it will be deleted by some news
server. Here are more tips.

If you're responding to more than one point, you should intersperse
your comments among sections of quoted text, in point-counterpoint
style. Put a blank line between each section, to help the reader
distinguish them.

Effective "trimming" is a skill that improves with practice. If someone
complains, look closely at what you did and re-evaluate your quoting
strategy. If anyone wants to read your trimmed text they can refer
up the thread.

Attribute quotes properly by placing your comments after the
comment(s) that you are responding to, like this:

Nit Picker wrote:
Trivia Wiz wrote
Palm Guy wrote:
Island Fan wrote:
Trivia Wiz wrote
Who is named in the original theme song of Gilligan's
Island?

Gilligan, Skipper, the Howells, and Ginger.

What about Mary Ann and the Professor?

They weren't mentioned until the second season.

And the Howells and Ginger were described, not named.

Those *poor* people.

But not like this,

Those *poor* people.

Nit Picker wrote:
And the Howells and Ginger were described, not named.

Trivia Wiz wrote:
They weren't mentioned until the second season.

Palm Guy wrote:
What about Mary Ann and the Professor?

Island Fan wrote:
Gilligan, Skipper, the Howells, and Ginger.

Trivia Wiz wrote
Who is named in the original theme song of Gilligan's
Island?

After all, most people agree that it's a Good Thing to use correct
spelling and grammar, but they also agree that spelling, grammar and
formatting all contribute to people's impressions of you, and have at
least some influence on how seriously other people will take you.

In newsgroups, your words are the only "visible" evidence that people
can judge you by. They also affect how easy it is for people to read it,
and understand the points that you're trying to make. In general, people
don't like to be slowed down by scrolling through unnecessary material,
or by having to stop and re-construct the logical sequence.

Reconstructed from a document maintained by Jon Bell
http://web.presby.edu/~nnqadmin/nnq/nquote.html#Q1