Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) Newsgroups: net.followup,net.flame,net.religion,net.news.b Subject: Re: What to do about all these "quotes" of articles Message-ID: <858@watcgl.UUCP> Date: Wed, 26-Dec-84 23:47:58 EST Article-I.D.: watcgl.858 Posted: Wed Dec 26 23:47:58 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 27-Dec-84 03:36:25 EST References: <1308@eosp1.UUCP> <6730@brl-tgr.ARPA> <602@cbosgd.UUCP> Reply-To: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 20 As part of the process of installing 2.10.2 news at Waterloo, I modified "postnews" so that when a followup was being posted, it would ask the user if he/she wished to include the original article in the body of the new message. If the user says "no", then it doesn't get included, and they don't have to go to the trouble of editing it out (and for about half of the followups I post, I don't use any of the text of the original). If the user says "yes", they have just been reminded that there is an old article body sitting waiting for them to edit down - particularly useful if they are not using a screen editor and thus won't automatically see the text. Perhaps this is a reasonable method of cutting down on garbage in followups will still providing the ability to include the referenced article wherever appropriate? Now if only rn/Pnews could be convinced to do the same. It goes to the trouble to ask me if I really want to use the editor that I told it to use via an environment variable, presumably in case I feel like using a different editor right at this moment, but doesn't give me a choice of whether the original article is included! Arghh.