When I reply to a posting, Outlook Express puts my reply ABOVE the text of the posting I am replying to while most people's have their text below the original. Having the new text above makes reading replies easier because it eliminates having to scroll down through the original text to read the response.
I know that making Outlook Express work this way is an option - I vaguely remember choosing it years ago when I set up my computer. Can anyone tell me how one could select it now? It sure would be convenient if all newsgroup posters set their email software to function this way.
For some reason that I'm not sure anyone understand, netiquette evolved so that top posting was "bad" and replies should be posted below the original text. I guess if someone is reading the thread for the first time and don't want to read all the replies, picking one will display the original message first and then the respone. Seems backwards to me since I usually read the original post and the selected responses and have to scroll down every time past all the original input. Of course, proper usage also dictates that one edit the original message either in its entirety or down to the selected segments to which one is replying. All rather cumbersome for a unmoderated newsgroup. As to how to "fix" oulook, I've no idea since I just use my browser to read newsgroups.
Tom
92 Red (gone but not forgotten)
05 Vette (red, but of course)
"Netiquette" is an excuse for long time Internet users that decided their way is best. Bottom posting is obsolete because most persons that Reply use a program that automatically enters the new text at the top and above the quoted text. A high percentage of users that Reply do not edit their quoted copies, and as a result we all do a lot of scrolling to read the reply.
I am a Top Poster, and have always been one. I pre-date the Internet. When using using the BBS (peer-to-peer bulletin boards) of the 1980's, I top posted then. In those days you didn't quote a message very often when you posted to a board. When Compuserve first made the Internet accessible to the masses, little message quoting was done. It was considered bad form to top post because it made the text out of order.
Office filing before computers was mostly done in a sequential order from oldest to newest. Sometime in the 1970s I discovered that I could save time when filing by reversing the order and putting the most recent information at the front of the file.
We can credit Microsoft for creating Outlook Express and Outlook which default to starting the cursor position at the top of the document. In the long run top posting is the most efficient convention for adding replies to previous postings. Bottom Posters would save a lot of time, and wear & tear on their scroller for all of us by changing their minds.
Outlook Express does, then, in your opinion, read through the entire message and identifies the parts that need a specific response? It then puts the cursor behind those spots so that you can enter the specific responses?
Or if it cannot figure out what is being said, it puts the cursor
*behind the message* so that it allows you to respond *to the message as posted*?
Or is OE just so infernally stupid, like all the software Bill Gates got paid billions for, that it has no clue what is in the message? That it only puts the cursor at the start since it is even so stupid not to be able to figure out where the signature starts?
And it eliminates having a reminder what the original message
*really said*, so that "responses" can be given that answer issues not raised?
"Randy Maheux" wrote in news:SR5Wd.69342$JZ2.31744@fed1read02:
People are supposed to snip the unnecessary parts of their reply so scrolling shouldn't be required. The reason OE tried to put your reply at the top is because it's a badly broken news reader and is not GNKSA compliant as all news readers should be.
No it wouldn't, top posting is frowned upon in most newsgroups.
A. Because people don't read that way. Q. Why is top posting bad?
See?
You can partially fix OE manually by turning off the feature to add signature automatically, this will still leave the cursor at the top allowing you to snip any part you don't want to leave in your reply, then you can reply at the bottom and click on "add signature" to place your sig. at the bottom as it should be.
You can fix the broken sig. dash part of OE by adding OE Quote Fix (you can Google for it), you can add Y Proxy to allow decoding yEnc files or you can add FidoLook which fixed several problems with OE.
Better yet, you can get a better newsreader, there are several, some of which are free. You can also get a better email client, again some are free and you can totally remove OE from your computer, the instructions are on Microsoft's site, and eliminate a major source of worms, trojans and other malware.
My personal preference is Xnews for newsgroups and Pegasus Mail for email, as always, YMMV.
Absolutely. However, when we had a discussion like this years ago, people overwhelmingly wanted to see the whole message for various reasons that made some sense. So I only snip if things get long.
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