People doesn’t use to take as finished a thread just because somebody mean so. Actually, at least in maillists, most of the people like to have the last word, so putting a “mark” to finish the conversation could be seen as a challenge.

At least, that’s my experience with the maillists…

Anyway, I kind of use this. For short responses I use top-posting and bottom-posting for threads. But I use more inline-posting on threads because usually there are a few blocks of ideas or the previous mail is too large, so it’s much more clear to put the responses in context.

When you want to freeze one branch just use top posting.

When you want to promote one branch and evolve it, just use bottom posting.

I thought at the first place you want to use both at the same time/mail.