Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

on Wed, May 28, 2003 at 03:21:09PM -0400, David R. Matusiak wrote:
> now, if this "Top posting is blatantly wrong" idea is supported by some 
> type of Internet Standards group, then just point me to the RFC and i 
> would be glad to review the technical specifications and determine 
> whether my electronic communications comply.

Do a google search, you silly.

 RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines
 http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html

 Section 3.1.1, 
 General Guidelines for mailing lists and NetNews:

    - If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you
      summarize the original at the top of the message, or include just
      enough text of the original to give a context.  This will make
      sure readers understand when they start to read your response.
      Since NetNews, especially, is proliferated by distributing the
      postings from one host to another, it is possible to see a
      response to a message before seeing the original.  Giving context
      helps everyone.  But do not include the entire original!

Granted, RFC 1855 is just an informational RFC, and like all other RFCs,
is not binding on anyone - except those who care about being a part of a
larger community run by convention and agreement upon best practices.

 http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html

I dunno, I just guess that if you're going to spend the time to write
something to a list of a couple thousand people, you'd care that it be
sent in the manner most likely to result in their understanding it. And
top posting, to me, is a form of laziness, encouraged by poorly designed
mail clients, and as such should be discouraged at every turn. Like
HTML email, viruses, spam, and poor spelling ;)

There are those who disagree:

 http://www.globecom.net/ietf/draft/draft-bambenek-posting-guidelines-00.html

But they're wrong.

Steve,
electronic communications fundie

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