Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ncoast.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!lll-crg!ucdavis!ucbvax!decvax!cwruecmp!hal!ncoast!allbery From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: RN is at fault for all this included text Message-ID: <869@ncoast.UUCP> Date: Sun, 27-Oct-85 21:13:19 EST Article-I.D.: ncoast.869 Posted: Sun Oct 27 21:13:19 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 30-Oct-85 06:39:17 EST References: <3220@ut-sally.UUCP> <910@abnji.UUCP> <445@looking.UUCP> Organization: Cleveland Public Access UNIX, Cleveland, OH Lines: 36 [WARNING: ALL OF <3220@ut-sally.UUCP> is in here -- see the end for the reason] > It's been suggested that if RN didn't have an "F" command, people would > just use editors. This is not the case. There was a massive increase > in the amount of included text on the net with the introduction of RN. > > When I saw the "F" feature in an early release, I wrote an urgent message > to Larry Wall begging him to take this feature out. He didn't agree that > it would be as bad as I suggested. I suspect current trends prove me right. > > Remember the rule for USENET software design: Articles are posted once, but > read a thousand times. Anything that makes it 1% easier for a reader and > 500% harder for the poster is worth it. > > To my mind, this justifies moderators (as I have described them) and careful > checks in posting software, along with a plethora of keywords. > > Right now the net is (roughly) reader-pays, so it should be reader driven. If > you put in the option for poster-pays, this would change. > -- > Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473 I hate to tell you... but I sent this from 2.10.2 readnews (temporary, I am stuck at 300 baud right now...) -- and the only followup command available automatically includes the message. Ditto vnews. If anything, rn is BETTER since the `f' command is available. -- ``Youth, you are guilty of muddy thinking.'' Mentor ncoast!allbery@Case.CSNet (ncoast!allbery%Case.CSNet@CSNet-Relay.ARPA) ..decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!bsa -- maybe ..genrad!mit-eddie!futura!ncoast!allbery 6615 Center St., Mentor, OH 44060 (I moved) --Phone: +01 216 974 9210 CIS 74106,1032 -- MCI MAIL BALLBERY (WARNING: I am only a part-time denizen...) ncoast is dead, long live ncoast!