On 2008-04-21, B A R R Y wrote:
I bottom post, as I always have on Usenet, out of respect to convention.
Over time, I have formed an opinion that top posting or intertwining
comments makes the most sense from a readability standpoint.

What people call "interleaving" or "intertwining" comments is the actual
convention. Pure bottom-posting is no better than top-posting, and for the
same reason: there's no correspondence between your comments and what you're
commenting on.

To my eyes, what creates the real problems are people who don't trim
long posts combined with both top and bottom posting in long threads.

Yes, indeed. Lack of trimming is a real pain.

If a reply is properly trimmed and attributed, the reply is readable and
makes perfect sense regardless of where the reply is placed.

No. Top posting still breaks the relationship between your comments and what
you're commenting on.

You don't have conversations backwards...but that's what a top-posted
message reads like.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (ordered 17 March, delivery 2 June)