Re: Newsgroup

From: GSV Three Minds in a Can (GSV_at_quik.clara.co.uk)
Date: 02/22/05 

Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 14:06:43 +0000

Bitstring <cvfc1s$6k7$4@n4vu2.n4vu.com>, from the wonderful person Noah
Little <me@privacy.net> said
>GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:
>> No you wouldn't, but personally I don't have access to a teletype or
>>flexowriter any more, and all of my 'wide selection of hardware' can
>>cope with more than 100 characters these days - actually most of it
>>acn cope with 256 or more.
>
>Of course, apart from common sense, courtesy and time-honored defacto
>standards, there's not much reason to keep the posting widths down.
>
>Common sense:
>First, humans don't read comfortably in wide columns. Think for a
>moment why newspapers and magazines, which can easily print
>256-character columns, tend toward column widths even narrower than 80
>characters.

Is true, however the difference between 72 and 80 is trivial as far as
I am concerned, which is why I said I was willing to relax it 'a
little'.

>Courtesy:
>Next, there are plenty of Usenet readers whose terminals can't
>accommodate more than 80 characters

So people keep asserting, without actually mentioning any. Like I said I
haven't see one (outside of PDAs of cell phones) for many years now.
Hands up anyone here who has a fixed 80 character width reading device
(and what is it?). I mean there =are= VT100s and TTYs out there, but
mostly in museums and back rooms (and government installations?).

>...even more whose software or configurations don't accommodate wider
>lines gracefully.

The software problem is rather easily fixed - mine rewraps to the window
width unless people deliberately send it broken,.

>Defacto standard:
>Nearly everyone who's been on Usenet long enough to know its real name
>understands and abides by the ~72-character standard. Not everyone
>does, however. Most of them wonder why their postings aren't getting
>much response.

I guess I'm just arguing about the value of ~72. Personally 80 doesn't
phase me. Even 90 not a big problem. 120 or 256 .. yep, an issue. 

-- 
GSV   Three Minds in a Can
SC recommends the use of Firefox; Get smart, or get assimilated.

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