Re: Initialling Quoted Texts

From: Tim Tyler (tim_at_tt1lock.org)
Date: 06/29/04 

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 16:10:44 +0000 (UTC)

John Edser <edser@tpg.com.au> wrote or quoted:

> Why not simply initial all quoted text so that
> anybody can easily see who said what, as Josh
> our esteemed moderator recommended.

Text is normally attributed by newsreaders at the head of the
post - usually with the full name and address of the poster
in question.

This makes initialling each quoted section logically redundant.

It might help readers remeber who said what somewhat - but it's
also rather a waste of vertical space. However the real killer is
that it is tricky to automate effectively - and no newsreader I
have ever seen has attempted automatic performance of the task.

As for skipping indentation characters - that makes conversations
*extremely* difficult to follow - since the information about who
is responding to whom too easily gets lost.

I don't recall the moderator ever recommending paragraphs be
initialled. That is certainly not the standard usenet convention.
Some reference to what he actually said on this issue would
consequently be appreciated. 

-- 
[moderator's note: I may have said something to the effect that
readers with no access to a newsreader would have to wing it,
as they'd be using email clients. Since John uses Outlook, the
simple fix is to turn on quoting in the included text, which can
be done under the "Tools" menu (tools->options->email options,
and change the "on replies and forwards" fields). This preserves
threading well and mimics the standard Usenet format. - JAH]
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