From: tal@Warren.MENTORG.COM (Tom Limoncelli)
Newsgroups: news.software.nntp
Subject: Re: fascist inews refuses short replies- Solutio
Date: 12 Jan 1993 10:18:49 -0500
Organization: Mentor Graphics -- IC Group
Distribution: inet
NNTP-Posting-Host: milk.warren.mentorg.com

In article <1itcv7INNcn8@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca> unruh@physics.ubc.ca (William Unruh) writes:

>c) It is rude. It  attempts to enforce etiquette by force. Etiquette
>should be taught not enforced with extreme rudeness,
>as inews does by throwing away the message. It would be far more
>helpful if it posted the bad message but sent a message to the incorrect
>poster telling him that it is bad etiquette not to edit down the
>included material.

I agree!  We can't have netnews software forcing people to learn more
about how to use their computers.  If people learn to a 1-2 keystroke
command to delete a line, what will they try to do next?  Delete entire
paragraphs?

DIDN'T ANYONE THINK ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF PEOPLE LEARNING HOW TO
USE THEIR EDITORS???

Where will it end?  Soon we'll have people deleting their family pets!
Someone might accidentally delete their house!  ISN'T THE HOMELESS
PROBLEM BAD ENOUGH IN THIS COUNTRY???

And what about all the people that use "cat" as a word processor?  What
about them?  I bet they feel left out!

What horrors might this lead to?

MS-DOS users might have to learn how to change directories!
Amiga users might have to learn how to eject a floppy disk!
Mac users might have to learn how to... uhh, uhh, use their mouse or
something.

MY GOD!!! THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO LEARN COMPILER
THEORY TO USE LEX AND YACC!

The REAL issue (I couldn't let my fans down and not get to the real
"issue behind the issue" as usual) is this damn enforcement technique.
Cruel and unusual punishment, I tell ya!  Do you know how many times a
new user, perhaps one that just only recenly switched from "cat" to
"vi" and hasn't yet learned how to delete a line (which, as any emacs
user knows, is an intricate sequence of 18 keystrokes, and if you mess
up your face explodes).  Now were was I?  Oh yeah, so say someone is
posting their first message.  Since Usenet is the most important thing
in the world and since everyone in the world reads Usenet 25 hours a
day, a user is posting an important message.  He or she doesn't edit
the quoted text and BOOM! the post is rejected.  The new user doesn't
notice what's happening and assumes that everyone on the world see's
his message.  THE USER THEN DIES BECAUSE THE MESSAGE NEVER GOT OUT!

You think I'm exagerating?  HOW WOULD YOU KNOW???  YOU NEVER SEE THOSE
REJECTED MESSAGES AND THEY PEOPLE DIE BEFORE THE LEARN ENOUGH TO REPOST
THEM, IDIOT!

Well, here at HTSF, we have installed a "rejected posting catcher"
which mails a copy of all rejected posts to me, where I collect
statistics on them.  Now, I can't email the user and help them correct
their ways because that would be interfering with the experiment, but
you should see some of these messages!  Here's some quotes:

"Help, my car just hit a tree and I'm bleeding to death."
"There's someone at the door with a gun.  What should I do?"
"There's someone at the door with a gnu.  What can he charge me?"
"My face just exploded.  What are the correct keystrokes to delete a
line in vi?"
"Gray Camry FNA21C, your lights are on."
"What's the phone number for 911?"
"What's better: vi or emacs?"
"What's that ticking sound?"

THESE ARE JUST SAMPLES.  I could list hundreds more!  Don't you all see
why this is such an important issue?

This whole quoted-text-checking thing must be stopped and it must be
stopped right away.  Or I'll, I'll, I'll write my own netnews software
and start my own network and it'll be so good because people won't have
to edit quoted text and everyone will switch to it and Usenet will die
because nobody will want to be on it anymore.

SO THERE!

Tom
-- 
Tom Limoncelli -- tal@warren.mentorg.com (work) -- tal@plts.uucp (play)

Unix is a trademark of, WHATT????