by There are people who insist that you should never top post.
There are people who insist that you should always top post.
Both sides need to just get over it already. By volume, though the world is gone to top posting. Outlook does it by default. Gmail does it by default. AOL does it by default. The battle is lost. Move on. The time for evangelism is past.
There are legitimate cases for both. Forwarding something to somebody with a brief introduction, for instance, is a really good use for top posting. If you’re responding to key points inside the message, post inline. If it’s a process of continuous mark-up, bottom posting or inline posting makes a lot more sense. In a lot of business cases, you want to see the most recent content without having to scroll all the way down, so top posting can work.
Above all else, follow the conversation. If the conversation started with top posting, just go with it. If the conversation started with bottom posting, go with that. Don’t mix styles in a single conversation if at all possible! That’s just rude, inflexible, and tilting at windmills.
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