[news.newusers.questions] My turn to ask questions.

johnb@lakesys.lakesys.com (John C. Burant) (12/02/89)

Okay, now it's my turn to ask a few questions:  

1) When following up to a post, I am not given an option to include the 
original message, but I am asked if I want to include a prepared file, so 
what I do it type:

Prepared file to include [none]: /news/news/newusers/questions/305

Is there an easier way to do this than type out the filename?


2) I notice that with some signature files, the -- isn't printed out, and
a customized line is... If there a way I can get rid of this (using Pnews)?

-John

-- 
John C. Burant | johnb@lakesys.lakesys.com      | "Now don't you wish you
Glendale, WI   | johnb@lakesys.UUCP             | had someone with perfect
[.signature]   | ... uunet!marque!lakesys!johnb | pitch in YOUR band?"
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emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) (12/03/89)

In article <1380@lakesys.lakesys.com>,
johnb@lakesys.lakesys.com (John C. Burant) writes:

   1) When following up to a post, I am not given an option to include the 
   original message, but I am asked if I want to include a prepared file, so 
   what I do it type:

   Prepared file to include [none]: /news/news/newusers/questions/305

   Is there an easier way to do this than type out the filename?

Yes.  It depends on your newsreader, but in rn and gnus the 'F'
command will include the original message in the body of your followup
article.  You'll have to edit it down of course to trim out
unnecessary stuff, like the original poster's .signature, unimportant
bits of the original message, etc. so that inews won't complain
about too much quoted text.

--Ed

tale@cs.rpi.edu (Dave Lawrence) (12/03/89)

In article <EMV.89Dec2163702@urania.math.lsa.umich.edu> emv@math.lsa.umich.edu
(Edward Vielmetti) writes:

   You'll have to edit it down of course to trim out unnecessary
   stuff, like the original poster's .signature, unimportant bits of
   the original message, etc. so that inews won't complain about too
   much quoted text.

Actually, inews complaining is not one of the most important reasons
for doing this; in fact, inews was designed to complain about it
because of the other reasons.

The reason that blankets them all is, "it pisses people off."  Lots of
them.  If you want to generate some hate mail, just send out a message
that quotes the entirety of a 50 lines article, and at the bottom say,
"Me too."  Make sure all that follows is a 18 line .signature; people
love that, really.  If you are going to keep it within the strongly
suggested four line limit, make sure all it has besides your address
is a couple of rows of '@' characters.  And if you want to say more
than just "Me too," either just resist or say something so stupid and
wrong that people can't hope but to hate you wrong.  Oh, don't get
upset about being flamed to a crisp by people who have obviously been
around longer and know better than you; you will probably be able to
find one or two people who will leap to your defense no matter how
idiotic your article was.

[ Okay, okay.  So I'll never be Emily Postnews. ]

Seriously, though, inews does it as a simple attempt to prevent novice
posters from wasting net.resources through careless editing of
follow-up postings.  It wastes people's time and organisations' money.
And inews complaining can be a whole lot gentler on you than the rest
of the net.

Dave
-- 
   (setq mail '("tale@cs.rpi.edu" "tale@ai.mit.edu" "tale@rpitsmts.bitnet"))