Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!panda!teddy!jpn
From: jpn@teddy.UUCP (John P. Nelson)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: The 4-line and 50% rules considered harmful
Message-ID: <4688@teddy.UUCP>
Date: 30 Mar 88 20:48:47 GMT
References: <1501@looking.UUCP> <211@ateng.UUCP>
Reply-To: jpn@teddy.UUCP (John P. Nelson)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 17

>Seriously, the only real effect of the 4-line rule has been to make posters
>include their signatures by hand.  The only real effect of the 50% rule has
>been to force people to use their own quotation symbols.

I think this is untrue.

Oh, sure, the experienced users know how to work around these limits.
But the rules were put in place to keep down the noise from the
UNexperienced users.  Remember how many articles used to have 100 lines
of text and a one line response?  I remember!

I think both of the above rules have improved USENET significantly.
-- 
     john nelson

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