One of the strangest online cults that I have recently encountered is the Anti-Top Posting Cult. These are people that argue strongly against top posting in replies to mailing lists. If someone does top post, they attack the practice of top posting and ignore the content of the message. Perhaps this is from some insecurity or inability to respond to the content of the email messages. Whatever it is, it has been enough to drive me away from a couple different mailing lists.

When a person replies to an email, they can either put their reply at the top of the email, a practice called top posting, or they can interleave their responses into the original email or simply post their response at the bottom of the email.

The practice of interleaved posting or bottom posting is not completely without merit. It is easier for readers of an email written this way to understand the context of the replies. “I agree” or “+1” makes a lot more sense when it comes right after what the writer is agreeing with.

Yet there are also advantages to top-posting. A good writer seeks to have a compelling first sentence. If that first sentence is interleaved somewhere in the email, the impact can get lost. When I glance at an email, I typically look at the first sentence. If it is interesting, I’m more likely to read the rest of the message. However, if it begins with three greater than signs, followed by a line that I’ve already read a dozen times, I’m less likely to scan down and look for the new content. This is especially the case when I’m reading my emails on my N900 which only shows ten lines per page. Some bottom posters have written messages that I have to scroll down several pages to find any new content. Usually, it just isn’t worth it.

Top posting is also simpler for many people because of their email programs. It seems like most lists that I subscribe to, and I subscribe to a lot, are predominantly top posted. I suspect many of my readers have never heard of top posting, and have never considered writing emails any other way than top posting.

Now, I don’t begrudge people who prefer to interleave or bottom post. As I said, there are benefits to this. However, I would hope that people who prefer to interleave or bottom post wouldn’t begrudge people that top post. Unfortunately, my recent encounters with anti-top posting fanatics have been very different, so I’ve left those lists where such fanatics dominate. What about you? Do you top post? Interleave? Bottom post? Do you tolerate those who write emails differently than you do? Have you ever even heard of this sort of controversy or even care?