Re: [Pan-users] OT: calling all old-timers -- using * for attributions

[Wayne E. Nail]

On Tue, 2009-11-03 at 14:49 +1100, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> Forgive the off-topic post, but over on a newsgroup I frequent, one of 
> the old-timers made a claim that "*" was frequently used for 
> attributions back in the Good Old Days before the current crop 
> of "lesser quality" newsreaders. Instead of:
> 
> On Tuesday November 3 2009, Fred said:
> > blah blah blah
> 
> this poster uses:
> 
> * Fred:
> > blah blah blah
> 
> and claims it is "clearer". 
> 
> I can't say I've ever seen this, but I've only been using Usenet for 
> 15-odd years, so not an old-timer. Any old-timers ever seen this and 
> like to comment?

Haven't seen it, so far as my two remaining brain cells can recall.

I've only been a 'serious' Usenet user since 1994; it might predate
that.

Further, I have always been into Usenet mostly for the binaries, with
discussion and group camaraderie messages within such environments
valued but secondary, so I dunno how the Australopithecus Masters may
have handled things in their text-only realms.