X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fbb9d,5f636f607e74e744 X-Google-Attributes: gidfbb9d,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-09-14 06:11:40 PST Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!sashimi.wwa.com!not-for-mail From: Matt Messina Newsgroups: rec.arts.ascii Subject: Talk: IDs Date: 14 Sep 1994 07:55:48 -0500 Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor Lines: 70 Sender: boba@wwa.com Approved: boba@wwa.com Message-ID: <356rsk$lep@gagme.wwa.com> References: <351a0b$e0j@gagme.wwa.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: gagme.wwa.com In article <351b4i$eec@gagme.wwa.com> Bob Allison, boba@wwa.com writes: > Originally, I asked, since most people prefer having an ID on a > subject line, why not put them at the end to get them out of our > collective face? I *wish* that we could put them in the Keywords header, but most newsreaders don't display Keywords until you see the article, and then there's the problem of getting people to use that header... > Well, on the groups, and in email, not one person liked the idea. On > some systems the end would get chopped off even if it wasn't on the > system of the person who posted it. I wouldn't mind the identifiers be at the end, but that's because my favorite newsreader (Nuntius for Macintosh) easily displays Subject lines that are 60 characters long. Most newsreaders truncate the Subject line to far fewer characters than that, though. In addition, when an article passes through some machines that are configured wrong, the machine truncates the Subject line to approximately 25 characters. > OK, putting them at the end won't work. So what could be done to keep > them, but also make them less annoying? How about all lower case, in ()? > I did this post that way as an example. I agree with Zeus Paleologos , who, elsewhere in this thread, said that the IDs should be all the same length and capitalized (LIN,GIF,ANM,COL,3-D,BIN,BIG,RPO,REQ,DIS,Q??,A..,INF,ANC,FAQ--what happened to PIX? and what's the difference between INF and ANC?) to make it easy to scan Subject lines. IMO, putting IDs in parens would be a mistake, as it just wastes two characters, making the ID even more "in your face." If I had my way (If I ran the zoo :-)) IDs would look like "Subject: DIS Identifiers". Identifiers in this group are unique in the sense that they can change throughout a thread (REQUEST, GIF, LINE), whereas identifiers in rec.arts.tv.soaps, the canonical example of a labeled newsgroup, don't. This presents a problem, as some newsreaders thread by Subject rather than by References, but I don't see any way around that. On another note, why are so many articles crossposted to a.a-a and r.a.a? Is there anyone who reads one but not the other? (excepting those who don't get a.a-a) -- Matt Messina messina@umich.edu ObAscii: Lower 48 by Jorn Barger ,__ _, \~\| ~~---___ , | \ | / | ~~~~~~~|~~~~~| ~~---, _/, > /~-_--__| | | \ / ~\~~/ /~| ||,' | / \ |------| { / /~) __-' ',|_\, / | |~~~~~~~~| \ \ | | '~\ |_____,|~,-' |~~--__ | | |____ |~~~~~|--| |__ /_-' {,~ | | ~~~|~~| | ~~\ / `-' |`~ |~_____{/ | | | '---------, \----| | | ,' ~/~\,|` ', \ | | |~~~~~~~| \ | ,'~~\ / | | \ | | | | \_-~ /`~___--\ ', \ ,-----|-------+-------'_____/__----~~/ / '_ '\| | |~~~| | | _/-,~~-,/ \ | | | |_ | /~~|~~\ \,/ ~~~-' | | `~~~\___| | | / '-,_ | _____| | / | ,-'---~\ `~'~ \ | '--,~~~~-~~, \ \/~\ /~~~`---` | \ \ / \ | \ | '\' `~' -jorn