Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site looking.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: RN is at fault for all this included text
Message-ID: <445@looking.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Oct-85 12:56:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: looking.445
Posted: Tue Oct 22 12:56:10 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Oct-85 04:48:03 EDT
References: <3220@ut-sally.UUCP> <910@abnji.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd. Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 19
Summary: 

It's been suggested that if RN didn't have an "F" command, people would
just use editors.  This is not the case.  There was a massive increase
in the amount of included text on the net with the introduction of RN.

When I saw the "F" feature in an early release, I wrote an urgent message
to Larry Wall begging him to take this feature out.  He didn't agree that
it would be as bad as I suggested.  I suspect current trends prove me right.

Remember the rule for USENET software design:  Articles are posted once, but
read a thousand times.  Anything that makes it 1% easier for a reader and
500% harder for the poster is worth it.

To my mind, this justifies moderators (as I have described them) and careful
checks in posting software, along with a plethora of keywords.

Right now the net is (roughly) reader-pays, so it should be reader driven.  If
you put in the option for poster-pays, this would change.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473