A valid reason for top posting? (GPRS data costs)

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Saturday, 16 September 2006 at 16:06:44 +0930, quixote8 wrote:
> To quote myself from previous linuxsa message :-
>
> "Grrrr ...... bottom posting (as default)

Of course, with a real editor, this would be a reply to that message
(and not the one you attached), with the reasoning added after the
statement.

> It is tedious, time wasting and annoying to have to re-read or fart
> around with long serial posts that you have already read (maybe
> several times)

You're confusing two separate issues:

1.  Locality of reference.  If you refer to something, your reference
    should be close to that something.  I've just demonstrated how
    ambiguities can creep in otherwise.  It makes sense to write these
    references (immediately) after the text to which you refer.  You
    actually did this, but you appended another, unrelated mail
    message in its entirety.

2.  Removal of irrelevant parts of messages.  In fact, Michael's
    message would have been less ambiguous had he trimmed it
    appropriately.  Untrimmed threads of ever longer messages are evil
    and waste of time and money, but that has nothing to do with your
    ability to structure your thoughts logically.  In your case,
    though, most of the message you attached was completely irrelevant
    to the points you were trying to make.

So what relevance does the following appendage have?  I can't see any
at all.

> Rod Whitby wrote:
>>>>> Top-posting "This term is generally used pejoratively with the
>>>>> implication that the offending person is a newbie, a Microsoft
>>>>> addict (Microsoft mail tools produce a similar format by default),
>>>>> or simply a common-and-garden-variety idiot." - Eric Raymond
>>>>>
>>
>> Having just spent two weeks on business in France, with my only email
>> link being GPRS (at 1c per Kb), there is one other reason that someone
>> may prefer that others use top-posting:
>>
>> If you set your email client to only download the first 250 bytes of
>> each message (so you can tell whether you should pay the extra money to
>> download the rest of the message), then top-posting is very attractive
>> (especially when people bottom-post without editing the quoted text).
>>
>> Eric Raymond, who comes from a country with flat-fee mobile data costs,
>> probably hasn't encountered this other valid reason for someone (who is
>> not a newbie, nor a Microsoft addict, nor an idiot) to prefer top-posting.
>>
>> -- Rod
>>
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Greg
--
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