Then I'll disagree with Ken on this - it's not too hard to scroll down
to see the text being responded to. Sometimes when a poster 'bottom
posts', or intersperses comments inside the text being responded to,
it can be hard to find, especially when the earlier text is long. The
top posting comments are always easy to locate.

In general, I think the best way varies with the situation. If the
earlier email is short, so that it and the response are all visible on
the screen, then it matters little, IMHO. But I've seen a number of
posts where the earlier email is several screens long and it's a bit
hard to find the reply text.

Wouldn't it be nice if there could be a link at the top of the text
that would take you right to the relevant point in the text, as we
often get in web pages? Not likely to happen tho.

The only case I've seen that inspired me to gently (I hope!) chide an
individual poster is a frequent poster on another list I follow
(iBobs), where his email program does not insert the common '' at the
start of each line in the original text. He bottom posts, and it's
always a challenge to parse where his comments begin.

Erik

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenneth Salzberg"
To: "Multiple recipients of list NORDIC-SKI"

Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 6:05 AM
Subject: Top Posting, And Posting: Sort Of Like Waxing


I disagree. If the text of the post to which you are responding is
necessary to the understanding of your reply, it needs to go first.
If it
is not, it needs to be deleted (this was, of course, of much more
importance when most people had slow modem connections - it still is
important when there are folks out there with limited space for
saving
their e-mail).
One of the variables here is that many of those rules of ediquitte
(which I could never spell correctly) have to do with e-mail
corrispondance, rather than net-news posting. Since many of us read
the
ski posts by e-mail, those rules should be kept in mind.
-Ken

************************************************** *********
Kenneth Salzberg
Hamline University
School of Law (651) 523-2354
1536 Hewitt Ave.
Sisu Skier - 50K Club St. Paul, MN 55104
************************************************** ****************