Reply at the top or reply at the bottom?

[Rufus]

An opinion for everyone. <g>

With inline posting I too often have trouble instantly spotting the
current reply on long threads or even long single msg's. It depends
somewhat on the particular quoting of the mail reader, but it has as
much or more to with the volume of text. I do appreciate it when a
respondent quotes a line or two (no more!) of my (or somebody's) prior
post to _suggest_ context immediately before launching into a particular
thought. When carrying on half dozen or more conversations with people
all over the world who might not reply w/in the period of my short term
eidetic (!) memory, a brief nudge back on topic is a big help. Often I
myself "quote" not the OP's own text but a few words of my own that
caption the issue I'm about to reply to. For that I enclose my words in
square brackets to indicate that it's not a direct quote. But _brief_ is
key for all quotes.

IMHO, one should _never_ quote more than 3 or 4 lines inline or anywhere
else for that matter; less is better. But oft times a reply addresses
several issues and a _brief_ inline context hint before each relatively
different unrelated thought does help. However, posting the whole
previous message, much less two weeks of thread seems to me a horrible
mess. Threading in reader apps mostly allows easy review of even long
threads so those not up on the conversation can fairly easily check
original sources. The whole record is (s/b anyway) there for all to
review just about as easily as reading the whole lot in a single post.

I believe as a general rule, if you're don't feel fine typing it out
yourself, _including_ any quotes, then it should not be in your message.
There are many folks who rely on email but have serious throughput
constraints. I am on several lists that include sailors using wifi in
the Med, Africa and South America, South Pacific, ect. Sometimes these
people can only get connected through a cell phone and keeping it short
is important.

Lastly, on a slightly different but related topic: I find long "sigs"
not at all helpful and many seem akin to a DOS attack. And sigs with
moving parts strain my gentle forgiving spirit hugely. As do moving
emoticons.

Cheers

Rufus