Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site oliveb.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!jerry From: jerry@oliveb.UUCP (Jerry Aguirre) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: cleaning up the net -- software solutions proposed Message-ID: <506@oliveb.UUCP> Date: Tue, 16-Jul-85 16:20:54 EDT Article-I.D.: oliveb.506 Posted: Tue Jul 16 16:20:54 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jul-85 06:10:52 EDT References: <2982@nsc.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca Lines: 36 FLAME RESTRICTION ALREADY CODED Just to save anyone the trouble. I have already coded the change to restrict net.flame postings to net.flame only. I am currently testing it. YOUR OPPINION DESIRED I am still waiting for responses on the idea of restricting cross postings from net.flame. So far there have been no negative votes. Given the SLOW propagation time of the net (almost went into flame mode there) I will wait til the 19th for responses and then post a summary of the responses and the fix. LENGTH RESTRICTION BAD On the subject of restricting the length of articles. I have found that some of the most valuable articles were very long. As was pointed out the article suggesting this violated his own limit. If you were going to do it the length should be based on bytes not lines. The use of whitespace should not be penalized when it does not affect transmission time. Also this should also include only the body of the article as the poster has little control of headers added along the way. There would probably be three results to this kind of restriction. Lots of articles that are useless because they were truncated before making their point, articles with very long lines, and multipart articles. From a reading point of view lots of small junky articles are worse than one big one. I can see it now: "What I think is wrong with the world, part 17 of 58". Why don't we just find the user that posted the most for a month and cut him/her off for the following month. That might add an incentive to keep things short. As it is, the largest poster probably gets a kick out of being at the top of the list. Jerry Aguirre @ Olivetti ATC {hplabs|fortune|idi|ihnp4|tolerant|allegra|tymix}!oliveb!jerry