Is dealer pulling a fast one?

"mjc" > wrote in message >...
> Dave,
> It's like a STANDARD filing system where you put the newest files FIRST in
> the folder, in FRONT. That way one does not have to weed through paper after
> paper (response after response) to get to the latest info.

That, of course, only happens when irrelevant text is still included.
Putting responses first loses context; look at this response, this
paragraph is in response to the above text only; if I had grouped all
my paragraphs at the top, the reader does not know what I am specifically
responding to.

> Take this response for example, you did not have to do a separate operation
> (moving the cursor to the scroll bar to go all the way to the bottom to read
> this.

And you wont have to do it with this response either.

> I am sorry, but who ever "set the rules" YEARS ago on this top vs. bottom
> posting thing obviously was not a good file keeper. IMHO.

Very Humble :-)
Bear in mind that they did such a good job of it that, 20 years on,
its still in wide use. Posting your responses to specific parts of
the text (like this) helps the reader who has just joined the thread
to immediately understand what has been said, by who, and when. Top
posting has no advantage (as this post demonstrates, "not scrolling"
is not an advantage for top-posting only, you aren't scrolling here).
<snipped>

goose,

In article > ,
goose > wrote:
> > It's like a STANDARD filing system where you put the newest files
> > FIRST in the folder, in FRONT. That way one does not have to weed
> > through paper after paper (response after response) to get to the
> > latest info.

> That, of course, only happens when irrelevant text is still included.
> Putting responses first loses context; look at this response, this
> paragraph is in response to the above text only; if I had grouped all my
> paragraphs at the top, the reader does not know what I am specifically
> responding to.

I can only assume that 'mjc' is a newbie to newsgroups or rarely uses them.
Anyone who regularly reads them soon realises the reasons for the
conventions.

As regards his paper analogy, what existed as a convention could date back
to before word processors became the norm making re-arranging blocks of
text easy.

And filing systems for personal or business reasons assume you have been
following the subject. On newsgroups you may well not have read the thread
from the start.

--
*It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.