As horrifying as it is to think that automatic top-posting is the way to make things readable for the specific purpose of NNTP, it may actually be true.
It might also be possible to try to be clever about this, and put the quote on top if it's small enough and the reply doesn't have any Q or CITE elements.
As for whether people could have their own preferences… it would depend on how this is implemented. If it's talking directly to the newsreader from the DW code, then Anything Is Possible. But if it works by feeding articles to a newsserver, then that's harder; it'd mean hacking up INN or similar to do the post-processing, and this is where it goes beyond what I know about.
no subject
It might also be possible to try to be clever about this, and put the quote on top if it's small enough and the reply doesn't have any Q or CITE elements.
As for whether people could have their own preferences… it would depend on how this is implemented. If it's talking directly to the newsreader from the DW code, then Anything Is Possible. But if it works by feeding articles to a newsserver, then that's harder; it'd mean hacking up INN or similar to do the post-processing, and this is where it goes beyond what I know about.