Talk: IDs

In article <351b4i$ee...@gagme.wwa.com> Bob Allison, bob...@wwa.com writes:
>    Originally, I asked, since most people prefer having an ID on a 
> subject line, why not put them at the end to get them out of our 
> collective face?

I *wish* that we could put them in the Keywords header, but most
newsreaders don't display Keywords until you see the article, and then
there's the problem of getting people to use that header...

>    Well, on the groups, and in email, not one person liked the idea.  On 
> some systems the end would get chopped off even if it wasn't on the 
> system of the person who posted it.

I wouldn't mind the identifiers be at the end, but that's because my
favorite newsreader (Nuntius for Macintosh) easily displays Subject lines
that are 60 characters long.  Most newsreaders truncate the Subject line
to far fewer characters than that, though.  In addition, when an article
passes through some machines that are configured wrong, the machine
truncates the Subject line to approximately 25 characters.
 
>    OK, putting them at the end won't work.  So what could be done to keep 
> them, but also make them less annoying?  How about all lower case, in ()?
> I did this post that way as an example.

I agree with Zeus Paleologos <rl3...@netcom.com>, who, elsewhere in this
thread, said that the IDs should be all the same length and capitalized
(LIN,GIF,ANM,COL,3-D,BIN,BIG,RPO,REQ,DIS,Q??,A..,INF,ANC,FAQ--what happened
to PIX? and what's the difference between INF and ANC?) to make it easy to
scan Subject lines.  IMO, putting IDs in parens would be a mistake, as it
just wastes two characters, making the ID even more "in your face."  If I
had my way (If I ran the zoo :-)) IDs would look like 
"Subject: DIS Identifiers".

Identifiers in this group are unique in the sense that they can change
throughout a thread (REQUEST, GIF, LINE), whereas identifiers in
rec.arts.tv.soaps, the canonical example of a labeled newsgroup, don't.
This presents a problem, as some newsreaders thread by Subject rather than
by References, but I don't see any way around that.

On another note, why are so many articles crossposted to a.a-a and r.a.a?
Is there anyone who reads one but not the other? (excepting those who don't
get a.a-a)
--
Matt Messina
mes...@umich.edu

ObAscii: Lower 48 by Jorn Barger
         ,__                                                  _,
      \~\|  ~~---___              ,                          | \
       |      / |   ~~~~~~~|~~~~~| ~~---,                  _/,  >
      /~-_--__| |          |     \     / ~\~~/          /~| ||,'
      |       /  \         |------|   {    / /~)     __-' ',|_\,
     /       |    |~~~~~~~~|      \    \   | | '~\  |_____,|~,-'
     |~~--__ |    |        |____  |~~~~~|--| |__ /_-'     {,~
     |   |  ~~~|~~|        |    ~~\     /  `-' |`~ |~_____{/
     |   |     |  '---------,      \----|   |  |  ,' ~/~\,|`
     ',  \     |    |       |~~~~~~~|    \  | ,'~~\  /    |
      |   \    |    |       |       |     \_-~    /`~___--\
      ',   \  ,-----|-------+-------'_____/__----~~/      /
       '_   '\|     |      |~~~|     |    |      _/-,~~-,/
         \    |     |      |   |_    |    /~~|~~\    \,/
          ~~~-'     |      |     `~~~\___|   |   |    /
              '-,_  | _____|          |  /   | ,-'---~\
                  `~'~  \             |  '--,~~~~-~~,  \
                         \/~\      /~~~`---`         |  \
                             \    /                   \  |
                              \  |                     '\'
                               `~'              -jorn

Related ASCII art in the Gallery

Explore these categories from our collection of 11,000+ artworks:

 |\__/,|   (`\
 |_ _  |.--.) )
 ( T   )     /
(((^_(((/(((_/

  , _ ,
 ( o o )
/'` ' `'\
|'''''''|
|\\'''//|
   """

 ,~~--~~-.
+      | |\
|| |~ |`,/-\
*\_) \_) `-'

 __
 \  \     _ _
  \**\ ___\/ \
X*#####*+^^\_\
  o/\  \
     \__\

.------------.
|\\//\\//\\//|
|//\\//\\//\\|
|\\//\\//\\//|
|//\\//\\//\\|
'------------'

   _______
 /` _____ `\;,
/__(^===^)__\';,
  /  :::  \   ,;
 |   :::   | ,;'
 '._______.'`jgs

Make your own ASCII art

Turn images, text or 3D into ASCII, or draw your own – right in your browser.