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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!markb
From: markb@sdcrdcf.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: included lines
Message-ID: <1573@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Dec-84 14:57:03 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.1573
Posted: Tue Dec 18 14:57:03 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Dec-84 00:38:26 EST
References: <395@down.FUN>
Reply-To: markb@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Mark Biggar)
Distribution: net
Organization: System Development Corp. R+D, Santa Monica
Lines: 30
Summary: 

In article <395@down.FUN> north@down.FUN (Stephen C North) writes:
>I am appalled at the increasing number of articles that begin with
>many "> included" lines, sometimes more than one screen's worth.
>Why has this feature been hacked into new programs anyway?  Aren't
>even the implementors of news software clever enough to realize that
>they're working with a DATABASE?  For shame!
>
>	Stephen C North

Yes it is a DATABASE.  But, you must remember that the database has two
properties that greatly impact this problem.

1. The database is distributed.

	This means that we have all the problems associated with
distributed databases.  The message the followup applies to may not even
have arrived yet on the machine where someone is reading the followup.

2. The database is not the most reliable database system in the world.

	This means that the message that the followup applies to may
never show up on some machines.

I agree that several screen fulls of "> included" lines at the beginning
of am article is not nice to read thru.  But, I like followups that
reply to a massage in a point by point manner, alternating old text with the
new.

Mark Biggar
{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,akgua,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!markb