[net.news] Including "REPLACE LINE" lines

wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/16/84)

*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***

I left the preceeding in deliberately.

You know why you see this damn "REPLACE LINE" showing up everywhere?
BECAUSE YOU DON'T SEE THAT LINE TO CHANGE, REPLACE, OR DELETE IT WITH
A LINE EDITOR!!!!!!

I use "ed" all the time. If I used "vi" or emacs or some other screen
editor, I'd probably see that line to wipe it out. With "ed" or another
line editor, all the user gets is the number of characters in the buffer.
He then types "a" and proceeds to enter the text. Only if he has made errors
or wants to re-read the posting will he do a "1,$p" after completing the
input, and ONLY THEN will he see the "REPLACE LINE" line.

So it is not at all unlikely that many short postings will go out with
that line completely unseen by the poster.

I vote to remove it from the postnews and followup process entirely!

Will Martin

USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin     or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA

john@sol1.UUCP (john) (10/20/84)

> *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
> 
> I left the preceeding in deliberately.
> 
> You know why you see this damn "REPLACE LINE" showing up everywhere?
> BECAUSE YOU DON'T SEE THAT LINE TO CHANGE, REPLACE, OR DELETE IT WITH
> A LINE EDITOR!!!!!!
> 
> I use "ed" all the time. If I used "vi" or emacs or some other screen
> editor, I'd probably see that line to wipe it out. With "ed" or another
> line editor, all the user gets is the number of characters in the buffer.
> He then types "a" and proceeds to enter the text. Only if he has made errors
> or wants to re-read the posting will he do a "1,$p" after completing the
> input, and ONLY THEN will he see the "REPLACE LINE" line.
> 
> So it is not at all unlikely that many short postings will go out with
> that line completely unseen by the poster.
> 
> I vote to remove it from the postnews and followup process entirely!
> 
> Will Martin
> 
> USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin     or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA

*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
Yes indeed let's remove this from postnews!

John Korsmeyer
akgua!sol1!john