kraml@trwrb.UUCP (Robert P. Kraml) (07/08/87)
I have a question about the news software (were running 2.11)-- inews
to be more specific. I'm posting to these groups because I wasn't
sure where else to post to. My question is on submitting followup articles
using "F". How does the software discriminate "long" followups? I know
that the article is supposed to be trimmed down and I do that, but it
seems sporadically that my article gets rejected for that reason. I get
a message saying that the new text has more lines than the old or something
like that, when, in fact, I must have trimmed the original article down
by 75-80% overall. Might it be something at my site or am I missing
something? Any mail would be greatly apprecieted. Thanx.
--
Robert P. Kraml
Phone: (213) 536-1871 {allegra,uscvax,decvax,randvax,ihnp4,sdcrdcf}
Address: One Space Park |
82/2024 Redondo Beach, Ca. ------>!trwrb!trwcsed!kramlpdb@sei.cmu.edu (Patrick Barron) (07/11/87)
It isn't really "long" followups that inews doesn't like, but articles which contain an "excessive" amount of included material. Inews counts the number of lines that begin with ">", and if the ">" lines are more than 50% of the total article, the followup gets rejected. --Pat.
ken@argus.UUCP (Kenneth Ng) (07/17/87)
In article <1856@aw.sei.cmu.edu>, pdb@sei.cmu.edu (Patrick Barron) writes: > > It isn't really "long" followups that inews doesn't like, but articles which > contain an "excessive" amount of included material. Inews counts the number > of lines that begin with ">", and if the ">" lines are more than 50% of the > total article, the followup gets rejected. > > --Pat. As one who sometimes adds 'fodder' to prevent the inews rejection, I'd like to suggest a modification. Only start counting if the followup exceeds a certain size, a 80x24 screen for example. Sometimes I want to make a small remark on something, and then add junk to make sure that inews doesn't reject it. I am going on the presumption that the goal of this is to deter those who are posting followups to articles that are several hundred lines long, and don't bother to edit the material. Comments? Kenneth Ng: Post office: NJIT - CCCC, Newark New Jersey 07102 uucp !ihnp4!allegra!bellcore!argus!ken *** NOT ken@bellcore.uucp *** bitnet(prefered) ken@orion.bitnet North: "They were doing their job, I was doing mine"
karl@haddock.ISC.COM (Karl Heuer) (07/20/87)
[I don't think this belongs in news.groups; followups will go to news.misc] In article <960@argus.UUCP> ken@argus.UUCP (Kenneth Ng) writes: >As one who sometimes adds 'fodder' to prevent the inews rejection, I'd like >to suggest [that the 50% rule only apply for >24 lines]. Sometimes I want to >make a small remark on something, and then add junk to make sure that inews >doesn't reject it. ... Comments? Please don't add "inews fodder" -- I sympathize with your frustration, but I don't want to have to read the junk lines. If you *must* bypass the 50% rule, change the quote character from ">" to "|" or something. Learn to edit the quoted portion effectively. If necessary, rewrite the whole thing as a paraphrase (and mark it as such). Always edit out the signature, but leave the attribution line at the top. I agree that the 50% rule should probably be amended, primarily because so many people are using the "fodder" technique to bypass it. Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl@haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint (None of the above is directed to any single person, btw.)
russky@reed.UUCP (Greg Byshenk) (07/23/87)
In article <960@argus.UUCP> ken@argus.UUCP (Kenneth Ng) writes:
# As one who sometimes adds 'fodder' to prevent the inews rejection, I'd
# like to suggest a modification. Only start counting if the followup
# exceeds a certain size, a 80x24 screen for example. Sometimes I want
# to make a small remark on something, and then add junk to make sure
# that inews doesn't reject it.
Another simple, although somewhat tedious, solution is to replace
the ">" with some other character, such as "#".
--
gregory byshenk "The king? But I didn't vote for you!"
!tektronix!reed!russky
Yap, yappity, opinions, yap, my own, yap, not of my school, yappity, yap.pedz@bobkat.UUCP (Pedz Thing) (07/24/87)
In article <960@argus.UUCP> ken@argus.UUCP (Kenneth Ng) writes: >As one who sometimes adds 'fodder' to prevent the inews rejection, I'd >like to suggest a modification. Only start counting if the followup . . . I am surprised at the number of sites that did not just take this stupid useless code out of inews. It is trivial to do. That code along with all of the stupid questions that rn has added to its posting scripts I take out with each update to the code. The next time I do it, I guess I will take a diff and post it to the net. -- Cute signature line employing many literary allusions and puns. Standard disclaimer concerning my mental incompetance. Perry Smith a.k.a. (Pedz Thing) pedz@bobkat or {ti-csl,infotel}!pollux!bobkat!pedz
lwall@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) (07/24/87)
In article <6673@reed.UUCP> russky@reed.UUCP (Greg Byshenk) writes: : In article <960@argus.UUCP> ken@argus.UUCP (Kenneth Ng) writes: : # ... Sometimes I want : # to make a small remark on something, and then add junk to make sure : # that inews doesn't reject it. : : Another simple, although somewhat tedious, solution is to replace : the ">" with some other character, such as "#". Not tedious at all. Just specify -F# in your RNINIT environment variable. Or -F': ' as I've done. You guys should be glad I still have that DeLorean to go back into the past and add spiffy new features so people think I added them long ago. Need some more plutonium, though... And when I came back this time, I found I was working at JPL instead of SDC. How 'bout that! Larry Wall lwall@devvax.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
shor@sphinx.uchicago.edu (Melinda Shore) (07/24/87)
In article <1988@bobkat.UUCP> pedz@bobkat.UUCP (Pedz Thing) writes: >I am surprised at the number of sites that did not just take this >stupid useless code out of inews. It is trivial to do. And I'm surprised that you would do such a thing, since it's just as trivial to change it so that it only checks if the article is more than some number of lines long. Let's not pull this code out; I'm all for making it inconvenient for people to be sloppy. -- Melinda Shore ..!hao!oddjob!sphinx!shor Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center shore@morgorgo37373 v
mangoe@mimsy.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (07/25/87)
Melinda Shore writes, re the inews "too much quoting" check: > Let's not pull this code out; >I'm all for making it inconvenient for people to be sloppy. The problem is, people are sloppier as a result. People seem to be deadset on thwarting that code anyway, and altogether too many people thwart it by making their articles *longer*. What good is this doing? C. Wingate
sandro@itsgw.RPI.EDU (Sandro Wallach) (07/26/87)
I've seen various discussions about how inews tries to make people be
reasonable in quoting others' articles, and the discussions do run in
circles, but I've never seen someone comment on having an experience
like I did when I first hit the limit.
I did a reply, adding about 2 lines to the 10 lines I was quoting. Inews
gave me its error message. I went back and cut the article I was quoting
down to about 3 lines. Having thought about what I was saying some more,
I added a bit and rewrote it. My new comments were about 6 lines. Inews
was happier, and so were the people who read my article.
Now while I find the enforcement of this limit a bit strange, and almost
offensive, I'm sure there are a lot of other people out there who have,
like me, been saved from the evil over over-quoting by this little feature.
I think that's great.
--
"Endow me with the gifts of Sandro D. Wallach
a man-made world..." sandro@itsgw.rpi.edu
- The The sandro@rpitsmts.bitnet
seismo!rpics!itsgw!sandrojbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) (07/26/87)
In article <7690@mimsy.UUCP> mangoe@mimsy.UUCP (Charley Wingate) writes: [ re the inews "too much quoting" check: ] >The problem is, people are sloppier as a result. People seem to be deadset >on thwarting that code anyway, and altogether too many people thwart it by >making their articles *longer*. What good is this doing? It's doing quite a bit of good. You don't see nearly as many 50-line quotes followed by two-line comments as you used to. You don't see 50-line quotes followed by * REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE * either. I now make it a habit to edit the quotations more than I used to; so do most people. When I want to cheat the rule, I change the > into a different character. There is NEVER any reason to add "inews filler". -- - Joe Buck jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM {seismo,ucbvax,sun,decwrl,<smart-site>}!epimass.epi.com!jbuck Old arpa mailers: jbuck%epimass.EPI.COM@seismo.css.gov