Ed,
Not everyone agrees with the bottom-post-for-technical approach, it's a personal preference more than anything.
Technomage_Hawke is using reading tools that don't skip effectively (no visual interface).
It's not a lack of GUI, it's a lack of any capability to see the text, and he's absolutely correct that
viewing bottom-post in a screen reader or braille reader is excruciating, at best.
If you must bottom post, then you should trim out all the history you refer to below (just as I did to your split posting below) as a simple courtesy to people who can't actually use their eyes to skim over it.
I've generally found the following compromise to work reasonably well:
1) top post if it makes sense to do so, if people want the history they can keep reading.
2) post interlocutory if you're responding point-by-point to something; bracket your comments with --- so the visually impaired can tell more easily when the author changes.
3) Bottom post if it's preferred on a list or if someone requests it, but remove as much of the thread history as you can so screen readers and braille devices don't have to re-read the entire conversation with every email.
4) Use a thread-aware email client to make it easier to accept that others should make their own choices in this regard.
Just my thoughts,
==Joseph++
Ed wrote:
> Technomage, you might try a dedicated command line news reader to
> better consume PLUG emails in audio - ask Dennis about some of the
> alternatives.
> do you use Emacs for your speech tool?
> The reason for bottom posting is made at the bottom of this email -
> you can skip that.
>
> Ed
>
> Top posting is done in the business world because business emails only
> get reviewed by lawyers.
> Lists that may be reviewed for technical insight, or to understand a
> problem should be bottom posted so that the sequence of
> question-refinement-answer-confimation is preserved.
> PLUG is nominally a technical list - so post as you wish, just know
> that when you are scolded, you earned it. btw trimming email cruft is
> appreciated.
>
> The ability to filter on posting style does not (yet) exist in an
> email client - ymmv
> and yes gmail makes a bottom posted sequence of emails very readable -
> with little kbrd/mouse
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