In Defense of Top-Posting in MS Outlook
I have a rejoinder to the criticism on the top-posting style in MS Outlook.
Many users, primarily from the Usenet, have been pretty strong in condemning Microsoft Outlook's default way of using Top-posting. I make the case here for why this is so.
Outlook is aimed at Corporate users, not for people to participate in mailing lists.
1. In any organization, maintaining the chain of communication is important. Unlike a mailing list, where the entire thread is available at a later stage, a mail in an organization is not stored for all to see.
2. A "newbie" to the thread in a mailing list is assumed to have read the entire thread. Not so in the corporate world. The mail may be forwarded to a new person who would need to read the entire thread to get the context. Once he has read and replies to it, I don't want to keep scrolling till eternity to see his reply.
To summarize, the need to maintain the entire thread for context as well as for accountability makes it necessary to use top posting.
Many users, primarily from the Usenet, have been pretty strong in condemning Microsoft Outlook's default way of using Top-posting. I make the case here for why this is so.
Outlook is aimed at Corporate users, not for people to participate in mailing lists.
1. In any organization, maintaining the chain of communication is important. Unlike a mailing list, where the entire thread is available at a later stage, a mail in an organization is not stored for all to see.
2. A "newbie" to the thread in a mailing list is assumed to have read the entire thread. Not so in the corporate world. The mail may be forwarded to a new person who would need to read the entire thread to get the context. Once he has read and replies to it, I don't want to keep scrolling till eternity to see his reply.
To summarize, the need to maintain the entire thread for context as well as for accountability makes it necessary to use top posting.
posted by SherlockSridhar at
1:39 AM
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