WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: WebAIM List Update, Etiquette, and Contest

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From: Andrews, David B (DEED)
Date: Apr 17, 2012 1:36PM

Jared:


If you do not like bottom posting, this is fine, but please do not top post as you did in your message. This simply regurgitates the previous messages over and over again in the archives and the list digest, making them very difficult and inaccessible to everyone.

As an example, check out this recent message from the archives -
http://webaim.org/discussion/mail_message?id 075 It is a 2 sentence, top-posted response that then quotes 28 previous messages - over 350 lines and 13,000 characters of unnecessarily repeated content. If you try to read the entire thread -
http://webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread?threadR59 - it's over 4000 lines and 210,000 characters of repeated content. This, by the way, is exactly what list digest readers have to sort through. If properly trimmed, the thread would have been a few hundred lines of easily consumable and accessible content.


What you say is true, but will only take place in an ideal world. As someone who runs about 200 lists, I will say that whether they top post, bottom post, or whatever, most people do not trim messages properly.

This dialog clearly demonstrates one problem in accessibility. What best serves one group may in fact be a problem, or at least an inconvenience for another.

There is no simple or perfect answer here. As a blind person, my ideal is top posting with good trimming, and as a sighted person yours is probably bottom posting with good trimming.

Dave