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Re: why setting 'sig_on_top' is not recommended?



On 2005-12-21, Zhiqiang Ye <yezhiqiang@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi, all
> 
>      In my opinion, when I reply email, the signature information
> included before any quoted or forwarded message would be more clear. 
> We can see clearly who says what, especially when we have a long
> thread disscussing some topic.
> 
>      But when I man muttrc, they say:
>  sig_on_top
>               Type: boolean
>               Default: no
> 
>               If  set,  the  signature  will be included before
>               any quoted or forwarded text.  It is strongly
>               recommended that  you  do  not set  this  variable
>               unless  you really know what you are doing, and are
>               prepared to take some heat from netiquette
>               guardians.
> 
>      I don't why this is not recommended. Can anyone help me out?
> Thank you very much.

There have been some good articles written about this and posted to 
the web; unfortunately I don't have any of the URLs handy.  You 
might try a Google search for "netiquette".

There are a number of reasons that top-posting or TOFU--putting your 
reply at the top of a message and the quoted text below--is 
discouraged by veteran Usenet and e-mail users.

For one thing, many if not most Usenet and mailing-list postings 
consist of a number of questions or statements on some topic.  It 
helps everyone follow the discussion when each answer or comment 
immediately follows the associated question or statement, like this:

    > First question.

    Answer to first question.

    > Second question.

    Answer to second question.

The same exchange using top-posting would be structured like this:

    Answer to first question.

    Answer to second question.

    > First question.
    >
    > Second question.

This is more difficult to read because it is more difficult to find 
the question that prompted each answer and because your eyes have to 
bounce up and down the page to follow the discussion.

Another reason to avoid top-posting is that most readers appreciate 
responses that are short and to the point.  Such responses take less 
time to read and don't waste bandwidth.  Replies should quote as 
little of the original message as possible while still retaining the 
context of the reply.  This is easy to achieve if replies follow the 
quoted text.  People who top-post tend to include the entire message 
to which they are replying.

Some argue that it is important to retain all of the preceding 
messages attached to the bottom of each reply so that readers can 
see the reply in its complete context.  That is unnecessary on the 
Usenet and in mailing lists because any decent newsreader or mailer 
will allow the user to organize messages by threads; to review a 
discussion, you just read the previous messages in the thread.  
Keeping copies of all previous messages attached to the bottom of 
each new message is redundant.

HTH,
Gary

-- 
Gary Johnson                               | Agilent Technologies
garyjohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                   | Wireless Division
http://www.spocom.com/users/gjohnson/mutt/ | Spokane, Washington, USA