Re: [Pan-users] GNKSA-ish feature suggestion -- RFC 1855 compliant warning on long posts

[Fred Fraley]

>
> It's [] good practice to include the word "Long" in the  subject
> header so the recipient knows the message will take time  to read
> and respond to. Over 100 lines is considered "long".
>
 
        I wonder if this is one of those "traditional" things that no longer 
really applies?  History:
        Older, non-internet news relays did not always show line counts, if 
present they often had no relationship to the message length, and 
connection time was valuable (remember when upgrading to a 
"high-speed" modem meant 2400 baud and sysop privileges meant 
doubling your limit from 30' to 60'/day on a BBS?).  Etiquette also 
meant using a packet reader like BlueWave to handle "long" messages 
offline.

        Whilst reminiscing, most packet readers also flagged if you were 
about to post anything more than 25-50% quoted material.  And, at 
least in my area, it was VERY bad form to bottom post.  
        I still like top posted messages better - I can quickly find the 
start of the new material and refer to the old material - of course 
50 lines at the most- if I need to.  Now it seems reversed, with 
several screens of quoted repost and (I hope) one screen or less of 
new material.  If there's more that that I have to go searching for 
where it starts. 
        Hmmm...Maybe everyone could put a <START HERE!!> flag on the new 
material, and we could automatically scan there to find the beginning 
:->