Re: LYNX-DEV don't give a damn?

[Foteos Macrides]

David Trueman <address@hidden> wrote:
>On Mon, 21 Oct 1996, Carl Reimann wrote:
>
>> Perhaps we should make it a netiquette issue. Nearly everybody feels
>> strongly that mailing lists should not be spammed. 
>
>An idea that has come up locally is to have a function built in to lynx
>and bound (at least optionally) to a single keystroke that would allow 
>any user to generate a comment on the current URL (directed at doc owner 
>if known, but at address@hidden if not) that would politely
>discuss the importance of usability through lynx with references to URLs
>explaining the issue further.
>
>Any site could compile in this feature and advertise it to their users
>if they wished to be "activists" in this area.
>
>If there is come level of agreement with this, I will see about getting 
>it implemented and distributed to this list.

        Tilde and underscore are the only command keys left for it.
My preference is underscore (my predisposition is to save tilde as
the "gold key" for a second tier of commands, someday, with other
keys, e.g. the VTxxx PDF1, as configurable synonyms).

        It wouldn't require much code, so why are you thinking of making
it a compilation option?  Users all would have the option not to send
such a message.  One could disable it via lynx.cfg and a command-line
switch, but it might be better to keep compilation options for features
to the very few we have now, so we don't compound the problems we already
have with distribution of binaries (and I'd still rather compile in
lynxexec and lynxprog handling by default, since they can be blocked by
default in lynx.cfg, which is still required to start up Lynx). That would
leave only execution of fetched scripts as a compilation option that's off
by default (and still should be).

        Would the feature include ability to edit the message mailed?
That might then require sysadmin decisions.  Also, it in theory is an
option to mail a preformatted file.  How much regulation should there
be over where it can come from, and thus its content (or were you
thinking of generating the content on the fly in an LYMail.c function)?

        As an operator of a large freenet which uses Lynx in the ways
that guided it's initial design, how bad has the Lynx image become, from
your perspective, with respect to its needs for system resources?

                                Fote

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 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 address@hidden         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
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