Re: old pentium

From: Andy Fraser (andyfraser31_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 01/20/04 

Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 17:33:56 +0000

On Tuesday 20 Jan 2004 4:47 pm, MikeyD uttered these immortal words:

>>> Post 1:
>>> Would you like some tea?
>>>
>>> Post 2:
>>> Yes please
>>>>Would you like some tea?
>>
>> This one assumes I've already read post 1 or I've read post 1 and can
>> remember what it said. When I get post 2 I see "Yes please" and wonder
>> what you're saying "yes please" to until I read the second line. This can
>> be confusing in a large post.
>
> True, in a large post with multiple points to reply to, bottom-posting is
> clearly the only way to go.

I'd interleave my comments below the relevant points like I'm doing here.
That's probably what you meant and I'm probably just being pedantic
though :-)

> But the fact is that everyone who I've
> discussed it with tends to read, on average, five or six posts from a
> thread together. Which means most of the time, they have just read the
> previous post.

When I came to this thread again just now there where just the 3 replies
from you here. I read the other posts yesterday. Because you replied below
the relevant points I could refresh my memory as I scrolled down without
having to click on any other posts.

>>
>>> vs
>>>
>>> Post 1:
>>> Would you like some tea?
>>>
>>> Post 2:
>>>>Would you like some tea?
>>> Yes please
>>
>> With this one I can see the relevant bit of post 1 if I haven't already
>> read it or I can be reminded of post 1 if I have read it, skip that bit
>> if I can remember it, then read the reply in post 2. My vote goes with
>> this one.
>
> But that means you have to make an effort to skip it. With one line of
> quote that's not a problem, but what if there were 30 lines?

If someone only makes one point in 30 lines and all 30 lines need quoting
for context and meaning then they're waffling if you ask me :-)

I use a wheel mouse and scroll with the wheel so it's not a problem to
scroll up and down as I need to. When I used slrn I only had to hit space
to scroll down then space again at the bottom of the post to move to the
next unread post. That seems to be a convention in most *nix newsreaders
I've used including KNode, which I'm using now.

> Wheras with a
> top-posted response you can see the reply, and quite often that will jolt
> your memory, I find at least. If you do need the context, it's there below
> it for you, and usually you will only need to read the first line or so
> and then you can recall the whole post. At least IME.

I can't remember how to scroll up in slrn now it's been so long since I've
used it but it's pretty nice to just keep your finger on the space bar and
read away without messing around :-)

>> BTW why do you insist that I mail this to you as well as posting to the
>> NG? I haven't set up SMTP in KNode on my other box and it opens a KMail
>> compose window as well as a KNode compose window which is annoying.
>>
> I usually only read usenet once a day, wheras I can check my emails more
> frequently. That way if someone says something that needs an immediate
> answer, I will give the answer pretty quickly.

Fair enough. I'll see your reply to this tomorrow then ;-) 

-- 
Andy.