Talk: IDs

Bob Allison (bob...@wwa.com) wrote:

: In article <356rsk$le...@gagme.wwa.com>, Matt Messina  <mes...@umich.edu> wrote:
: >
: >In article <351b4i$ee...@gagme.wwa.com> Bob Allison, bob...@wwa.com writes:
: >>    Originally, I asked, since most people prefer having an ID on a 
: >> subject line, why not put them at the end to get them out of our 
: >> collective face?
: >
: >I *wish* that we could put them in the Keywords header, but most
: >newsreaders don't display Keywords until you see the article, and then
: >there's the problem of getting people to use that header...
: >
: >>    Well, on the groups, and in email, not one person liked the idea.  On 
: >> some systems the end would get chopped off even if it wasn't on the 
: >> system of the person who posted it.
: >
: >I wouldn't mind the identifiers be at the end, but that's because my
: >favorite newsreader (Nuntius for Macintosh) easily displays Subject lines
: >that are 60 characters long.  Most newsreaders truncate the Subject line
: >to far fewer characters than that, though.  In addition, when an article
: >passes through some machines that are configured wrong, the machine
: >truncates the Subject line to approximately 25 characters.
: > 
: >>    OK, putting them at the end won't work.  So what could be done to keep 
: >> them, but also make them less annoying?  How about all lower case, in ()?
: >> I did this post that way as an example.
: >
: >I agree with Zeus Paleologos <rl3...@netcom.com>, who, elsewhere in this
: >thread, said that the IDs should be all the same length and capitalized
: >(LIN,GIF,ANM,COL,3-D,BIN,BIG,RPO,REQ,DIS,Q??,A..,INF,ANC,FAQ--what happened
: >to PIX? and what's the difference between INF and ANC?) to make it easy to
: >scan Subject lines.  IMO, putting IDs in parens would be a mistake, as it
: >just wastes two characters, making the ID even more "in your face."  If I
: >had my way (If I ran the zoo :-)) IDs would look like 
: >"Subject: DIS Identifiers".

:    We tried the 3-letter IDs at the beginning.  The problem there is that 
: they are more cryptic than a word.  The new reader may quickly understand 
: words like request, talk, and answer, but those three letter ones require 
: that you've read the FAQ, and who read the FAQ?
What beginning?
I don't remember that... 
But of course I've only read this group for 1/2 to 2/3 of a year...

And hey... I read the FAQ!!! 
	Atleast about the ID's and sites and interesting stuff like
	that... not the info on how to draw even though once i went
	through it page by page slowly!

:    Don't get me wrong, I think that it's the best way, in theory.  It's 
: the one I thoughth of at the beginning, but in practice it left something 
: to be desired.
Yes, I agree...
And newbie's-They'll read the FAQ soon enough... :-)

:    As to what's the diff between info and announce, they both are IDs for 
: specific information, but announce is of a higher level of importance.  
: For example, if I add some files to my FTP site, that's info, but if you 
: start a new FTP site, that's an announcement.

: >Identifiers in this group are unique in the sense that they can change
: >throughout a thread (REQUEST, GIF, LINE), whereas identifiers in
: >rec.arts.tv.soaps, the canonical example of a labeled newsgroup, don't.
: >This presents a problem, as some newsreaders thread by Subject rather than
: >by References, but I don't see any way around that.

:    This brings up the point of changing the ID when posting.  If a post 
: goes to r.a.a, I can check the ID and change it (although that's all I 
: ever tough in a post, I never touch the message itself, just the header).

:    But it would be great if I didn't have to do that.  I'm not complaining, 
: I just think it's a good idea for people on any group to change the 
: subject line to reflect the current state of a thread.

:    Have you ever picked a post to read, and it had nothing to do with the 
: subject line?  Did it feel like a waste of your time?

:    Oh well, I guess all this chatter hasn't changed anything.  Using one 
-- 
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