rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson) (06/10/85)
Well, I don't need any more results on the survey; the results so far are unanimous and have slowed enough for a posting. *SPOILER* in the Subject/Title line as a warning that the article to follow contains an answer (even a partial one) won hands down; only one person suggested something different (see the first comment below). Those who mentioned it (about half of you) all agreed that something on the order of AUTHOR'S ANSWER in the Subject line of an answer provided by the original poster of a puzzle was a good idea. Here are some comments that I found interesting: --------------------------------------------------------------------- I favor rotating, but some solutions aren't sufficiently concealed by rotation because they consist mostly of digits. I think the problem pos(t)er should invite mailed replies and post the best one(s) or his own solution. When I have posted to net.puzzle I have always posted the solution in the next message. [Because rn and some other news readers always show the first page of an article before the reader has a chance to make a choice of reading or not]: ...even if you mark an article as a SPOILER, take steps to ensure that nothing gets spoiled in the first twenty or so lines. [The sender of this suggested using a line-feed near the top of your SPOILER, since rn interprets line-feeds as page breaks, but noted that some people had complained that their news software didn't like line-feeds. I personally agree with the line-feed idea; I can't see it causing that many problems and it solves a big problem]. [And, the most frequent comment on the "Re:" controversy (i.e., don't read anything that is "Re:" the puzzle you are interested in]: I like to watch the different processes towards solution. [and]: The argument that a Re: on the subject is good enough doesn't seem to hold water -- it may be a clarification or question. --------------------------------------------------------------------- So, the consensus is: Use SPOILER in your Subject line to indicate even a partial answer. Use AUTHOR'S ANSWER or some other indicative term (AUTHOR'S SPOILER? THE *REAL* ANSWER?) to show that you are posting a SPOILER (answer) and that you are the original poster of the puzzle. Remember that, if you choose to rotate, rotation does not affect digits. With the proliferation of rn as the newsreader of choice, it might be a nice idea to preface your article with a line-feed (^J). Thanks to everyone for your quick responses and interesting commentary, -- The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291) alias: Curtis Jackson ...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj ...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!rcj