From: Alfie Costa (agcosta@gis.net)
Date: Sun Nov 11 2001 - 07:04:35 CET
There's too many quotes on this list. 30 lines will be quoted, (when one or
two would do), just to add one sentence. Sometimes even taglines or mailing
list taglines are quoted. Such messages are hard to read.
It is, of course, not a new problem here or elsewhere. Like some old disease,
it has folk remedies. Some people would cure this with courtesy. "Don't do
this", they complain, or beg. Others would cure it with abuse, which kindles
flaming. Neither seems to help on public lists, the public being naturally
very diverse.
Perhaps filters might work as a cure. If others have already tried this I
haven't yet read of it. Here are two ways it could work; these might be
combined, or used separately.
1) The mailing listbot could filter the messages. If it got an offending
message, (for example, 30 lines of unbroken quotes and one comment, or a quoted
mailing list tagline), it could:
* return it to sender, unsent, with a complaint.
* or, edit all quotes out, add a warning that it did this, and send it.
* remember the users name, and reduce the number of lines they can post.
* and variants of the latter, depending on the whims of the cruel filter.
2) The user's mailreader program could filter incoming messages, using similar
methods. This would be less tyrannical, yet would be, in some cases, more
punitive. For example, if many people used a "return to sender, unread" filter,
this would mailbomb superquoters.
---- All of which is hypothetical at present. Would such a cure be worse than the disease, and create new evils? --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: mulinux-unsubscribe@sunsite.dk For additional commands, e-mail: mulinux-help@sunsite.dk
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