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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!utastro!nather
From: nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: re: re: re: ...
Message-ID: <1005@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-Feb-85 11:16:48 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.1005
Posted: Mon Feb 11 11:16:48 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 01:42:02 EST
References: <8111@brl-tgr.ARPA> <450@rlgvax.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 24

> Fortunately, unedited inclusions of the original article are relatively
> rare, although not rare enough.

It's going to get worse.  We just installed the newest version of readnews,
and I found to my surprise that the "f" function not only puts me in the
editor, but DUPLICATES THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE IN ITS ENTIRETY, indented with
">" characters, and ending with

             ***REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE***

I predict most people will be too lazy to do the necessary editing to keep
the net from being flooded with replications.  There should also be a mechanism
like a dead-man's switch, so the user must do something to each line he wants
to keep, and have the rest disappear -- like replace the ">" with another
character.

I personally prefer to hear both sides of a phone conversation, so dialog
on the net is improved, in my view, by EDITED inclusion of the item being
commented upon.  But I worry this "improvement" is counter-productive.

-- 
Ed Nather
Astronony Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather