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Grex > Coop7 > #114: This is the post that never ends... | |
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cyberpnk
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This is the post that never ends...
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Oct 16 16:04 UTC 1995 |
I've seen it done time and time again, posts of 20 to 50 screens done IN THE
ITEM. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but it ticks me off just a little
bit to have to wade through all that drek. Why don't people get to the point? I
vote that any post longer than 5 - 10 screens be done as a file that we can
access and read rather than having it posted in the item.
Any thoughts?
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| 22 responses total. |
chelsea
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response 1 of 22:
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Oct 16 16:14 UTC 1995 |
My response headers show how many lines are in the response.
If it's too long or appears to be something that won't interest
me I simply hit control-C, then enter the number of the following
response. Quick and simple, doesn't at all limit what others
can do, and doesn't involve the care and feeding of a policy.
It's the Zen approach to conferencing. ;-)
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sidhe
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response 2 of 22:
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Oct 16 16:32 UTC 1995 |
Moreover, show me a twenty _screen_ post!
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davel
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response 3 of 22:
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Oct 16 19:46 UTC 1995 |
Well, if you set your screen size to two lines ...
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remmers
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response 4 of 22:
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Oct 16 22:15 UTC 1995 |
If you use a pager such as "more" or "less", there's another
solution: when the display pauses at end-of-screen, hit the "q"
key, and you'll be taken to the "Respond or pass" prompt. You
can then type the number immediately following the long response
to continue the item.
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marcvh
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response 5 of 22:
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Oct 16 22:40 UTC 1995 |
You can also do /^#, which will skip to the next line starting
with a # (assuming your rseps do that) and is faster.
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wisdom
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response 6 of 22:
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Oct 17 15:00 UTC 1995 |
Really, if someone's got a lot on their mind, what's the matter with
them getting it all out?
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marcvh
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response 7 of 22:
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Oct 17 15:39 UTC 1995 |
Didn't somebody write an "rdcv" (Reader's Digest Condensed Version) pager
that would remove all but the first and last 10 lines from a response?
Actually, I don't have a problem with long responses per se. But
anybody who goes more than a screenfull without some vertical whitespace
gets dumped into the bit bucket.
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steve
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response 8 of 22:
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Oct 17 16:07 UTC 1995 |
Nothing at all, Debra.
I've noticed over the last 15 or so years that peoples concept
of something "long" on a computer has been shortening. A 100 line
response isn't even two standard pages of text, but that is
considered "long" in most conferencing (confer, picospan, usenet, ...)
circles. People are getting more used to ever increasing flow
of information, but it seems like they want each little chunk
to be small.
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ajax
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response 9 of 22:
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Oct 17 18:02 UTC 1995 |
I'm definitely guilty of occasional multi-screen long-windedness.
(Though 3 screens is my usual max.) Sometimes there are a lot of
things I want to address, but Picospan's paradigm is very linear.
Because of this, unfortunately, most items only hop from one point
to another, or maybe carry on two or three "threads" simultaneously.
It's interesting typing in a short magazine or newspaper clip, and
realizing just how much text it is, relative to what we consider a
long (multi-screen) response on Grex.
Anyway, to address #0, I'm with the other folks here, I think there
are solutions you can use as an individual, which are more
appropriate than imposing a solution on everyone.
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rcurl
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response 10 of 22:
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Oct 17 19:15 UTC 1995 |
The question is related to the one of Grex being user friendly. There is
already too much material that could be read even in short give-and-take
(what appears to be the normal conversational mode). When someone enters a
long post in the midst of that, I think it tends not to be read with much
attention. It also usually raises many points for discussion, which
requires the reader to take notes (!) to address them all. I suspect few
do this (rarely I copy the response into an editor and work my way through
it responding and erasing as I go). But there is no inherent reason that
successive responses cannot be long and thooughtful if the subject
deserves such treatment and the responders are willing.
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selena
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response 11 of 22:
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Oct 18 05:14 UTC 1995 |
This is not a long post. enjoy!
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remmers
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response 12 of 22:
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Oct 18 11:28 UTC 1995 |
Re #7: I wrote the rdcv pager. That was years ago; the source
code is probably lost, although there'd be little problem in
reconstructing it--an easy C program to write.
My reaction to a long response depends on the topic and to
some extent the author. If I'm only casually interested in the
topic of the item, my eyes tend to glaze over as the long
response scrolls by--I don't read it carefully if at all.
If it's a topic I'm interested in and the author of the
response is someone who tends to write interesting, thought-
provoking prose (e.g. janc or polygon), I'll pay attention
and not mind the length.
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sidhe
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response 13 of 22:
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Oct 19 00:34 UTC 1995 |
Well, long posts are posted as the author feels it necessary.
Are we to say that, just because some find it annoying, we
should not express our full thoughts? I would hope not. I
believe, on the other hand that this item was posted mostly
from a sens of sheer frustration, and it's quite possible the
topic doesn't bother the author quite so much anymore.
To be certain, he hasnt come back yet.
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rcurl
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response 14 of 22:
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Oct 19 05:10 UTC 1995 |
#0 does not suggest that we should not express our full thoughts.
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selena
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response 15 of 22:
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Oct 19 15:31 UTC 1995 |
What if your full thoughts take up twenty screens, rane?
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cyberpnk
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response 16 of 22:
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Oct 19 16:59 UTC 1995 |
I case anyone's wondering, the system I'm on has an 80 char/25 line screen.
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rcurl
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response 17 of 22:
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Oct 19 19:11 UTC 1995 |
Most people won't read thoughts that take up twenty screens. Even
Hemingway would be ignored here by most users (except in the writing cf).
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adbarr
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response 18 of 22:
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Oct 19 20:55 UTC 1995 |
Heming who?
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sidhe
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response 19 of 22:
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Oct 19 21:15 UTC 1995 |
And yet, wouldn't it be a pity to discourage you from expressing
yourself fully, merely because you would be ignored? :)
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lilmo
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response 20 of 22:
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Oct 20 02:53 UTC 1995 |
I don't hink I've ever seen a RESPONSE more than 200-300 lines. A couple #0's
with more than that, but I'm SURE I've never seen anything like 500-1250 lines
as was suggested by #0 here. Perhaps there was some exaggeration?
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wisdom
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response 21 of 22:
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Oct 20 18:44 UTC 1995 |
Heh. SOME exaggeration, he says.
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tsty
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response 22 of 22:
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Oct 28 20:29 UTC 1995 |
<<two screens full of text = one keats of text>> Ten keats of text is a
bunch, even wehsn wellwritten. At teh same time, thje subject might deserve
it. However the "more applicable" method would be to stick a more
pointer to the file, if anyone wanted to avoid that much screen scrolling.
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