Re: ASCII Stuff

BoD wrote:
> Veronica Karlsson wrote:
> > If article n+1 is a response to article n then it often does not make
> > sense if the reader has not already read article n (or has not read it
> > very recently). In email you can assume that the reader has done that.
> > On usenet you cannot.
> 
> That's why article n can be included (as a reference) in the end of the
> message.

Why? It certainly won't remove the need to scroll (because you still
have to scroll past it to get to the next message). If it's already
available in the group then it's completely redundant. If it's not then
a short quote should be enough to not lose the context. Most of the time
there is no need to quote the entire thing.

> Of course, if you want to answer to a particular idea of the article, you
> should quote it before your answer, and I think nobody disagrees with
> that... But then it's not bottom-posting it would be middle-posting or
> center-posting (?).

Of course. (Who said anything about "bottom-posting"?)

> But if you want to answer the whole article, I say you should either not
> quote it at all, or quote it at the END so readers do not have to scroll
> down to read it.

This is where I disagree with you. If your response "carries its own
context" (i.e. can be understood on its own) then, sure, go ahead,
remove the quote. If it doesn't, then cut out everything except that
little bit of it that you are responding to. If you are responding to
more than one point, please do the "middle-posting" (normal) style.

> Now of course this may or may NOT be what netiquette says. But hey, some
> things have to evolve ;) And we must consider the new parameters (for
> example useragents become more and more 'intelligent',

They do?

> bandwidth is less and less a problem, ...)

Computer bandwidth maybe, but not "human bandwidth". Our eyes and brains
and fingers still work the same way they did thousands of years ago.
Example: these days many (most?) computers can show text that's more
than 80 characters wide, but such text is not comfortable for the human
eye to read. It still makes sense to keep your text under 80 columns,
not because of how computer screens looked 20 years ago but because of
how the human eye works.

Also, when you put more "capacity" into a computer (or a freezer, or a
cupboard, or a drawer, ...) you tend to fill it up. Keeping messages (or
web pages or images) lean still helps.


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