Re: IBM token ring cards

Hi Tim,

> 3) "Netiquette" is basic good manners on any NewsGroup and isn't an
> individual's sole opinion, but a well-recognised (though less and less
> observed, by the growing, unskilled and inexperienced "populace" of the
> Internet) "protocol" gradually developed over many years by a great number
> of people.

"Top-posting and full-quoting" becomes a serious problem for the automatic
processing of newsgroup messages in advanced tasks like full text indexing,
automatic extraction of question-answer parts, documenting, archiving and
retrieving messages and message parts of interest.

A message, basicly a text file, is scanned and processed sequentially, from
the top to the bottom of the file. In top-posted messages, the reply, i.e.
the new text, will be first scanned and extracted. If a full quote of the
previous message follows, the new text will be related to the complete body
of the previous message, instead of probably only to a particular fragment
of it. The same happens for bottom-posted messages preceded with a full
quote of the previous message.

As a thread evolves, with each new instance we have more and more copies of
the original text, and each time we relate the new text to the same original
text incremented by the previous additions. In Reply-3 below, we have no
certain way of telling to what portion of the quoted text the new text
"uhh-..." refers. For full text indexing, we will need to detect and discard
the fully quoted text, since we are mainly interested in additions to the
thread.

Original:
"help-help-help"
Reply 1:
"blah-blah-blah"
> help-help-help
Reply 2:
"aha-aha-aha"
> blah-blah-blah
> > help-help-help
Reply 3:
"uhh-uhh-uhh"
> aha-aha-aha
> > blah-blah-blah
> > > help-help-help

The Netiquette makes therefore some technical sense after all. There
certainly will be a software to clean up all the mess but many bits will
disappear, it won't be that precise, not now. Google already suppresses full
quotes in the message display, so you see the new text but you don't always
know what it relates to.




.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Cant delete temp files
    ... My Question is - What did Dudley write???? ... It also helps to address the person to whom you are responding. ... Again no>>>by Dudley's quote, so difficult to tell where his quote ends and ... Newsgroup quoting styles have been in use now for well over 20 years, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: New to group
    ... Most newsgroups use "quote and response" posting. ... good teachers on that newsgroup, and I should stay out of it.) ... Usenet is an asynchronous medium -- ...
    (alt.sewing)
  • Re: Galileo - Take 2 [Fantastically LONG]
    ... but I had no intention of making such a lecture. ... Why should I, when reading a newsgroup with Thunderbird have to waste my time by going to Google just to find out the context of somebody's post that did not include any quotes or other indicator to whom they were responding? ... Netiquette includes "quote some of what you're replying to to and indicate who said it so others know what is going on". ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Is there a reason to have different 32-bit and 64-bit interfaces?
    ... That is not the way I understand the "Managing of a newsgroup". ... Microsoft is using microsoft.* newsgroup names on their own server so ... NG according to Netiquette even more so than individual users. ... If such public forum is owned or organized by them, ...
    (microsoft.public.scripting.jscript)
  • Re: Windows 2000 short cut ICONS
    ... Note that this is a quote from a response in the win2000.newusers newsgroup ... Control Panel|Display|Appearance|Advanced and try changing the icon size by ... Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup. ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)