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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