military-request@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (08/07/90)
From: military-request@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) The current discussion over US fighter designations serves as a splendid example of what happens when something incorrect gets posted. That is, about half a dozen people correct the error, and two or three of them make additional errors, which are then corrected, etc, ad infinitum. The issue is further complicated by the fact that readers further out on the network may respond to an error in the several days between the time they see the mistake and the corrections reach their sites. I try to weed out as many of these corrections as I can, to save bandwidth and prevent repetition, but each rejection takes special effort on my part. Mostly for that reason, I try to include moderator notes when I spot an error and correct it on the spot. However, aircraft aren't my forte', so many errors get onto the net, with the results you see before you; numerous postings on the same topic, complicated threads, and an increasing amount of repetition. Please folks, try to be sure of your facts when you post. First, because it's good for you; if someone spots an obvious error in your posting, they're less likely to believe everything else you say. Second, because it decreases the noise level of the group. Finally, it makes my job easier and does wonderful things for my social life 8-) On a related thread, I'd like to touch on the topic of quoted text. Each day I have to manually edit several postings which quote more text than they add; Inews will reject such postings. In 90% of the cases, the postings can be made acceptable simply by not quoting useless lines like the extra "From:" line I include in the message body and the original poster's signature (signatures should *never* be quoted in a followup.) In the remaining postings, a more serious attempt at deleting unnecessary quotations will work, or in the extreme, the ">" character denoting quoted text can be changed to "<" or "|", fooling Inews. In general, though, it's not necessary to quote much of the original article. Interested readers will probably remember the original, and if not, they can back up and re-read it. In the future I may opt to begin rejecting articles that are not acceptable to Inews. Sorry if I sound like a grouch. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker Moderator, sci.military military-request@att.att.com (614) 860-5294 Send submissions to military@att.att.com