On Wednesday 10 January 2007 03:40, Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> 
wrote about 'Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Top/Bottom Posting':
> Most decent mail clients have a far better option, highlight the part of
> the message you wish to reply to before hitting Reply and only that text
> will be quoted.

I generally don't use this feature either, because I try to put my reply 
text as close as possible to what I'm replying to, resulting in an 
interleaved message.  In the case there's a single piece of text I'm 
replying to, it is nice to have.

Sans this highlight relevant part(s) feature, the proper behavior for an 
email client to to start at the top with the entire body of the email 
being replied to quoted (the RFC that covers text/plain;format=flowed 
discusses HOW to quote) below the cursor, and any signature below the 
quoted text, separated from the rest of the email with the text "-- " on a 
line by itself (this specific "signature separator" is specified in some 
RFC).

As this point, a responsible users scan down the message removing the 
irrelevant part(s) and putting his/her reply below the relevant part(s).

In the future, it may be possible that emails are sent in a language that 
has a bottom-to-top page order (I don't know of any languages that do this 
currently).  In that case, the cursor should start at the "beginning of 
page" and replies should go "after" their relevant parts as the user 
scans "through" the email.

-- 
"If there's one thing we've established over the years,
it's that the vast majority of our users don't have the slightest
clue what's best for them in terms of package stability."
-- Gentoo Developer Ciaran McCreesh