The message
from "Xebug" contains these words:
"shannie" wrote in message
...
I dont want to start a war, just throwing out a simple suggestion ;-)

Toooooo late :-)

As many newbies come into groups with their questions or comments there
is
a tendancy, if they are not sure of things, to top post, as was the case
when I first started posting.

Funny thing. My experience is exactly the reverse. As was my initial tendency.

That's because it's common sense to top-post. Nearly all newsreaders are
designed in such a way to encourage it, both in reading and writing posts.
Try using google groups, it's impossible to keep up with long posts when
they're bottom posted. It just takes too long to follow conversations.

No, it's not common sense to top-post. It's just sheer laziness. It's
contrary to all the norms of conversation. unless you are a clairvoyant
you reply to a point after it has been made.

Generally somebody points out the error of
their ways and one of two things happen, either a) the poster takes it
well
and goes on to bottom posting or b) the poster takes offence and a minor
squabble ensues and the whole top/bottom posting debate rears it's ugly
head. I've seen this happen again and again. I just wondered if people put
a
line under their sig..eg...please bottom post for clarity...(or something
along those lines)

It should only take one reading of the posts in a newsgroup to reveal
the general structure of replies, and the usual tone of them.

What about "Please bottom post because of another geeky convention designed
to make usenet less friendly to newcomers"

Probably because there'd be a thread like this following every such sig?

rhaps new lurkers would know straight away it's prefered
and when they do finally post they can get right down to the subject of
their post with the minimum of bad feeling?
Just a thought :-)

Shannie

There *is* a logic to bottom posting, but the structure of usenet wasn't
designed to make bottom posting the elegant process it should have been.
Take a look at a good web-forum such as vbulletin, there you'll see how
bottom posting works well, it's integral to the structure of the forum, not
in the way people structure their replies.

The structure of Usenet is entirely neutral. With the burgeoning numbers
coming on lie though, an accepted user policy was drawn up. This
favoured bottom-posting (and interleaved posting) as the norm.

--
Frère Jaques
They knocked the Bell down and erected a charade of pops.