Re: ASCII Stuff

BoD wrote:
> Veronica Karlsson wrote:
> > BoD wrote:
> > > <snip>

> > Why? It certainly won't remove the need to scroll (because you still
> > have to scroll past it to get to the next message).
> 
> I'm not sure I understand.
> When I want to read next message in thread I don't have to scroll
> anything.

In the news readers I'm familiar with you get the next message by
"scrolling past the end" of the current message.

> I agree but some have said that you cannot assume that the previous
> message is actually here.

That's right, you can't, which is why you should quote some text (but
not all of it).

> By the way the fact that it may be redundent is IMO not a problem:
> with the current "average" bandwidth, an article being 50 lines
> instead of 25 does not make a difference.

It makes a difference in the "bandwidth" experienced by the human eye
which has to sweep past those extra 25 lines.

> > 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.
> 
> But sometimes you want to answer the whole article!

I think we must be talking past each other somehow. Please, show some
examples of "answering the whole article" (i.e. links to posts at Google
or some similar service).

> > 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.
> 
> I'm lost. What do you recommend when I want to answer the whole article:
> 1. don't quote anything,

If your reply is a "complete article" of its own, which doesn't need
anything from the previous one to make sense, sure.

> 2. quote everything, at the end (top post)

This is the one I don't like. It's confusing.

> or 3. quote everything, at the beginning (bottom post)

I don't like this one either.

> Me I answer 1 or 2 but not 3. Then again it's just my opinion ;)

Me I answer 4: quote relevant bits, not whole posts.

> > >for example useragents become more and more 'intelligent',
> >
> > They do?
> 
> I think some fundamental laws of the universe can explain this
> way of the evolution... :)

Who says such "evolution" has to be in the direction of "more
intelligent"? All it says is that things change as time passes.

> But for instance I'm sure you can find a newsreader that will "hide"
> any quoted text if it is at the bottom of an article.
> I can imagine you can even configure some to reformat articles and
> to put bottom quoted text to the top of the article :)

And that would be "intelligent"? **brrr**  (that sort of features tend
to make a mess of ascii art)

> Me I use Outlook Express with OEQuoteFix, it has an option to hide
> sigs.

THAT can be intelligent (IF the sender has a correctly formed sig
separator and if you are not interested in seeing sigs, sig collectors
like me might not be as interested...)

> > > 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.
> 
> Not sure :) Humans do evolve!

Yes, but not very quickly. A few thousand years don't make that much
difference.


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