Up spake Jonathan Leighton:
Please don't top-post. Replies go at the bottom of the page.
Is it in any guidelines anywhere? I don't want to sound rude, or to be interfering, but for what it's worth, I think telling people exactly how they should format their emails goes a little too far.
My intention was informative, not normative. I require neither you nor anyone else to follow this convention, but I would prefer that you be aware of it.
Is there a specific reason for this?
There are two very good reasons: readability and tradition.
English text flows top-to-bottom, and presenting a dialogue with the first line at the top is how it's been done for centuries. Top-posts force readers to jump all over the message to follow the thread, especially in larger messages like <35bhchF4klav2U1@...434...>, when correspondents insert each riposte immediately after the previous argument.
I think it was also an inappropriate place for Trent to raise the issue.
Agreed. In future that part of the message will go to the poster, rather than the list.