Re: Slashcott enters second week ?

From	Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.misc
Subject	Re: Slashcott enters second week ?
Followup-To	comp.misc
Date	2014-03-03 17:31 +0100
Organization	A noiseless patient Strider
Message-ID	<lf2aot$j6g$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(5 earlier) <4459#11037@usenet.squte.com> <alpine.LNX.2.02.1403022327110.22572@darkstar.example.org> <4459#13888@usenet.squte.com> <ONCdnUiWXecvsonOnZ2dnUVZ7qWdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk> <4459#14677@usenet.squte.com>

Followups directed to: comp.misc

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On Monday 03 March 2014 14:55, tdk conveyed the following to 
comp.misc...

> [Andy burns wrote:]
>
>> Such as replying without any quoting so it's difficult to see the
>> context of what they're replying to
>
> The convention of quoting a lot of the message you are following up is
> obsolete IMHO.

No, it's not.

> It dates back to the early days of Usenet when propagation delays
> could be a day or more, instead of minutes.
> This meant you could read the answer before the question.

You obviously don't understand how Usenet works.  Not all servers are 
always equally propagating copies of the articles.  It happens more 
often than not - due to synchronization issues and so-called "netsplits" 
- that an article will simply not propagate, or that a crucial node in 
the network of news servers will disappear off the network for some 
time, causing more than a day's worth of articles to simply go missing.

> Nowadays almost all newsreaders show a tree view of the thread and
> make it easy to jump to the parent of a post. It's very rare to read a
> followup when the parent is missing.

Sure, it's easy... so long as you're subscribed only to one newsgroup, 
or perhaps only a few newsgroups, with low to moderate traffic.  

Those of us subscribed to 50 newsgroups and above - some of which have 
very high traffic - really can't be bothered perusing the thread to find 
out what it is that a person is replying to, anymore than that we can be 
bothered with top-posters - i.e. people who write their reply at the top 
of their message ("because that is where the cursor appeared when they 
hit 'R'") while leaving the entire message they are replying to dangling 
*underneath* their reply.

You are not alone on Usenet, and your own habits are not everyone else's 
habits.  Show some consideration for people with less time on their 
hands and more subjects on their minds than you yourself can spare.

> So, personally, I rarely quote and only if I want to draw attention to
> some specific phrase. I also usually miss out attributions if there's
> only one person I could be replying to.

Because that makes perfect sense to *you.*  And what about all the other 
people reading these newsgroups?

> Bill is using a newsreader I wrote to post, this newsreader by default
> doesn't quote any of the parent, which encourages not quoting.

Then that's a terrible newsreader, on par with the dreaded Google Groups 
(or "Google Gropes") posting interface.

> This is opposite from most newsreaders which quote all of the parent
> post and leave people to delete stuff (which they often don't).

If people don't delete the stuff that they're not responding to and 
which is no longer required or relevant for anyone to still understand 
what is being discussed, then that's those people's decision, and then 
those people need to be properly educated.  Policing them by creating a 
newsreader which doesn't quote at all by default is not the right thing 
to do.

> Most usenetters, over-quote instead of under-quote,so I'm sticking to
> this unless I see a good reason otherwise.

Over-quoting and under-quoting are both bad habits.  Replacing one evil 
by another evil is not the answer.

-- 
= Aragorn =

         http://www.linuxcounter.net - registrant #223157

Thread

Slashcott enters second week (?!) RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-16 20:59 +0000
  Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) Koen Lefever <koen.lefever@gmail.com> - 2014-02-16 15:57 -0800
    Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) "q.kontinuum" <achsis_of_elvis@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-02-17 09:21 +0100
    Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) RS Wood <rswood@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-17 09:36 +0000
      Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-02-17 05:01 +0501
        Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? RS Wood <rswood@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-17 13:35 +0000
          Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-02-17 12:26 +1226
        Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "q.kontinuum" <achsis_of_elvis@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-02-17 18:16 +0100
          Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? invis <invis@invis.net> - 2014-02-17 17:30 +0000
            Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? cykros@devio.us - 2014-02-17 22:50 +0000
      Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) Lance Orner <lance@orner.invalid.net> - 2014-02-17 09:45 -0800
        Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) RS Wood <rswood@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-17 19:54 +0000
  Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-02-17 00:00 -0800
  Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-17 10:06 -0500
    Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-17 16:22 +0000
      Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) wjwlsn <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-17 16:28 +0000
        Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) cykros@devio.us - 2014-02-17 23:02 +0000
        Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) "q.kontinuum" <achsis_of_elvis@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-02-18 00:34 +0100
          Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) Johannes Grassler <jgr-usenet@btw23.de> - 2014-02-18 23:45 +0000
      Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-02-17 17:43 +0000
        Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-02-18 01:55 +0200
          Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "q.kontinuum" <achsis_of_elvis@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-02-18 07:37 +0100
            Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? dialmove <dialmove@gmail.com> - 2014-02-18 13:07 +0000
              Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? dialmove <dialmove@gmail.com> - 2014-02-18 13:16 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-02-18 08:02 +0802
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "q.kontinuum" <achsis_of_elvis@yahoo.co.uk> - 2014-02-18 22:51 +0100
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-02-19 01:56 +0156
          Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Lance Orner <lance@orner.invalid.net> - 2014-02-18 19:47 -0800
            Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-02-19 08:58 +0200
            Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-02-19 01:36 +0136
        Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? 2phar <none@example.com> - 2014-02-18 00:08 +0000
          Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-18 07:12 +0000
            Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Koen Lefever <koen.lefever@gmail.com> - 2014-02-18 05:41 -0800
              Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-18 20:24 +0000
            Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Whiskers <catwheezel@operamail.com> - 2014-02-21 17:16 +0000
            Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-02-26 12:33 -0500
              Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-26 18:31 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-26 21:07 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "Andy K." <andy.k466@gmail.com> - 2014-03-02 17:52 +0100
                Posting to other tech groups, flag to comp.misc RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-02 19:56 +0000
                Re: Posting to other tech groups, flag to comp.misc Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2014-03-02 14:15 -0600
                Re: Posting to other tech groups, flag to comp.misc Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2014-03-02 23:47 +0000
                Re: Posting to other tech groups, flag to comp.misc Stephen Thomas Cole <usenet@stephenthomascole.com> - 2014-03-02 20:46 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-03-02 23:24 -0500
          Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-02-19 01:47 +0147
        Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-02-26 12:31 -0500
          Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-02-26 14:07 -0600
          Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "wjwlsn" <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-02-26 14:30 -0600
            Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-03-02 23:38 -0500
              Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "wjwlsn" <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-03-03 00:54 -0600
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2014-03-03 07:31 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-03-03 09:46 +0200
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2014-03-03 08:02 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "tdk" <forum.tdk@squte.com> - 2014-03-03 07:55 -0600
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-03-03 14:22 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2014-03-03 17:31 +0100
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2014-03-03 17:13 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-03 19:55 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2014-03-03 22:05 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Bjoern Hoehrmann <bjoern@hoehrmann.de> - 2014-03-04 14:06 +0100
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? "wjwlsn" <ibillwilson@gmail.com> - 2014-03-03 09:43 -0600
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2014-03-03 21:11 +0000
              Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-03 13:19 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-03-03 13:55 +0000
                Re: Slashcott enters second week  ? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-03 14:21 +0000
      Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) "Elizabeth T. Knuth" <eknuth@csbsju.edu> - 2014-02-22 13:57 -0600
      Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) Peter Percival <peterxpercival@hotmail.com> - 2014-02-22 20:12 +0000
  Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-02-20 10:15 +0000
    Re: Slashcott enters second week (?!) Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-02-20 12:25 +0200

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