Re: [Pan-users] top posting

[Charles Kerr]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2003 at 10:23:37AM -0400, Carl L. Gilbert wrote:
> On Sun, 2003-10-19 at 11:16, Torstein Sunde wrote:
> > Carl L. Gilbert wrote:
> > 
> > > Is their a way to get PAN to shut up about top posting?  Can PAN be
> > > made to simply read news and leave the politics out?
> > 
> > This has been discussed here before.  See these threads:
> >   http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/pan-users/2003-08/msg00157.html
> >   http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/pan-users/2002-09/msg00203.html
> 
> Thanks, as expected just a bunch of lame excuses about "specifications"
> and "find another reader."  People try to phrase it kindly, but who is
> fooled by that?
> 
> Every problem I have with PAN so far has been to meet this stupid spec. 
> Guess I shouldn't complain about PAN, but about the spec and who wrote
> it.

Then blame me; IIRC the GNKSA doesn't mention top-posting.  I put the
warning in because top-posting is irritating as Hell, and even though
posts from Pan are a small fraction of those from OE, it's my small
attempt to make Usenet more pleasant to use.

> I just want the "option" to turn the warning off.  I'm surprised that
> PAN would loose points with such an option.  Heck even a command line
> option would be nice.
>
> I would vote that their be an option to rather than simply complain,
> also offer the option to correct my mistake automatically.  Same with
> the width issue, auto-correction would be nice.

The stock answer of "recompile message-check.c without the warnings you
don't like" isn't given glibly:  only a few people have asked to be able
to post annoying messages without having Pan annoy them back, and the time
it takes you to remove code and recompile is much smaller than the time
it takes me to add new options.

> If I had more time I would add such features myself, but of course I
> have my own projects to tend too...

If I had a nickel... ;)

-- 
cheers,
Charles