Re: On why bottom posting....

[Warren Young <warren@etr-usa.com>]

On 5/8/2014 18:47, Linda Walsh wrote:
>
> They don't realize

Hasty generalization fallacy.  You don't know what they realize.

> like most good sources, will put the historical context information
> at the end in an appendix.

This is either the no true Scotsman fallacy, or denying the antecedent. 
  "My AP History teacher made us cite sources like this, therefore 
people who don't do it that way are wrong."

Most email is conversation, not essay or article writing.  The only 
reason we need quotes at all is that the pieces of the conversation are 
spaced apart in time and space, so we need context to keep the pieces 
strung together.

> Now if we can just get the bottom-posters to realize that by posting
> the footnotes, historical data, and duplicate info at the top
> of the document, they are more likely to lose the reader who is
> only scanning the first half the page.

That's why bottom-posting is supposed to go along with aggressive quote 
trimming, so that the quote includes only the pithiest possible 
reference to the prior contribution to the conversation.

I *have* noticed a lot of emails to the Cygwin lists with the entire 
prior conversation seemingly quoted, and one or two sentences appended. 
  If you want to rail against that, I'm right there with you.