Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!umd5!decuac!rayssd!gmp From: gmp@rayssd.ray.com (Greg Paris /exaflop meatbop/) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: more ways to kill articles Message-ID: <2240@rayssd.ray.com> Date: 5 May 88 17:22:12 GMT References: <227b3604:9d29@snark.UUCP> Sender: gmp@rayssd.ray.com (Gregory M. Paris @ Raytheon Company, Portsmouth RI) Reply-To: gmp@rayssd.RAY.COM (Greg Paris /exaflop meatbop/) Organization: RAYtheon Sub Sig Div Lines: 22 Summary: killing signatures In article <227b3604:9d29@snark.UUCP> eric@snark.UUCP (Eric S. Raymond) writes: > >2. A way to kill articles by long signature, especially articles > > with signatures not preceded by the "--" sequence. > > Um, how would you tell what things were signatures? Starting at the end of the article, count as a signature line any line that has a preponderance of the characters "!@+=-$*_" (and other signature favorites). Count blank (and empty) lines too. Large amounts of white space in the line are probably a good indicator also. This method can be easily defeated by putting a line that looks like text at the end of the article. Better ideas are welcome! By the way, I've been informed by Amir Plivatsky that articles transmitted via BITNET have all trailing spaces removed, so the "--" sequence isn't good enough for recognizing the beginning of a signature. -- Greg Paris /exaflop meatbop/ {att,decuac,gatech,necntc,sun,uiucdcs}!rayssd!gmp