The point is not so much to avoid POSTING the previous messages but to avoid
forcing the previous material on every reader. Chopping up a post is even
worse - it is more difficult to tell if there is any new material, so the
reader does not even have the CHOICE of scrolling past. Times change; once
the internet was siphoned through a 2400 bits/second straw and bandwidth was
at a premium; it made sense to force the user to take on a few tasks to
speed communitcation. Now bandwidth is much greater, and is much cheaper
than the user's time, so the method of posting should accomodate the user,
not the hardware or software. After all, don't you believe computers and
software should be designed for the user and not for the computer engineer?

Phil Weldon,

"Arthur Hagen" wrote in message
...

"Phil Weldon" wrote in message
...
Second, for a technical newsgroup top posting is much more efficient -
you can go directly to the NEW information without scrolling through
the prior posts. This is especially helpful because in many cases
the prior post will be relatively lengthy while the reply will be
relatively short.

Only if the poster is too lazy to chop away the irrelevant parts. This
kind
of laziness usually manifests in top posters, who quote EVERYTHING
(including signatures and blank lines at the bottom).

If you only want to post the new stuff, then DON'T QUOTE AT ALL -- chop
off
that bottom quote in a top post that only serves the purpose of eating up
disk space, bandwidth and reduce retention -- after all, if you want the
full text of the previous post, you simply go to the previous post. It's
listed in the header of the reply post, and most newsreader will give you
easy access to it.

No regards,
--
*Art