Answer Of The Week

by many

From: "Richard Webb" <elspider@interl.net>
To: <wdbonner@pacbell.net>
Subject: ascii or html, one vote for ascii
Date: Monday, January 15, 2001 6:08 AM

HI there,

My preference is straight ascii. THought I'm on the internet, I use an older machine, read and reply to my email offline, and don't have a web browser on at least two out of three machines around here. The only machine with a browser around here spends more time burning audio cds or for my lady love's work.

Though some would like to tell you differently, ascii is still the equivalent of a universal document format. Lots of folks are still using older computers and for them html isn't a viable option.

One thing I enjoy about fidonet and the snooze is the fact that people must actually say it with words, cute pictures and graphics aren't allowed. I'm a blind man, and your cute graphic doesn't do anything to make your point. Once we go down the html road people will want fancy pictures and the whole nine yards. SHould I ever return to a larger community you can bet I'll be pointing again, and should money permit I'll again have a mailer up and be a cm node, offering point access to those who want it, and maybe even a dial-up bbs as I once did.

REgards, and keep up the good work.

Richard Webb

Electric Spider Productions

If you put garbage in a computer nothing comes out but garbage. But this garbage, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and none dare criticize it.

By: Anne Page
To: Warren Bonner
Re: FidoNews 18:3 [00/03] Ed

In reply to some of the questions posed by the Fidonews editor:

ED> When are we going to take the giant step from ASCII only, to HTML?

AP> I hope that it will be NEVER if it means giving up ASCII. I am using a circa 1993 PC (486/33 with a slow modem) using WIN 3.1 and DOS 6.22 and do not have web access.

ED> Should the weekly fidonews be a BI-Monthly newsletter?

AP> No, it shouldn't. Even on a weekly basis, some of the news or opinion pieces are stale when published. When something is happening, the situation doesn't cease escalating until just before the deadline for the next issue. And, in the case of opinion pieces, many rebuttals are written in the echoes before the issue containing the beginning of the discussion thread reaches the readers.

ED> Should it be alternately ASCII and HTML? Or ASCII weekly, HTML
ED> monthly?

AP> No, it shouldn't. People who can only read ASCII will miss half of every year's issues.

ED> Should all sysops have the choice of which edition and format?

AP> No. All issues should be in ASCII and those sysops who want to offer it to their users in HTML should convert it to that format themselves.

Anne Page

An everyday BBS user and Echo co-moderator

* Origin: The Underground (1:106/1234)

By: Bob Seaborn
To: FidoNews Robot
Re: FidoNews 18:3 Editorial

Hi FidoNews,

FR> When are we going to take the giant step from ASCII only, to HTML?

Never! :)

Who really needs HTML-Stuff?

BS> Second the motion!

* Origin: http://www.nwstar.com (1:140/12)

By: mtaylor@gipps.com.au
To: All Re:
Re: FidoNews 18:3 Edito

From: "Martin Taylor" <mtaylor@gipps.com.au>

Tony Campbell said..

TC> I have to agree here also. And from an html BBS sysop. Fidonews should be ASCII, it is the lowest common denominator. Which is why we use the ASCII, not the html in the fidonews archives.

Not only that, people think that they're artists. So, they fiddle with the way that HTML can generate different effects. They end up posting a message with little content, but lots of effects. Not only does this mean that the rest of us have to download extraneous data, it can be unreadable, or unattractive to read, and generally pisses people off.

I see this all the time in email mailing lists. People use that Microsoft thing, Outlook Express. They post emails with fonts that look like crap, are too small to read, or too blocky (bold font, small point size) and so on.

Now, if a person can't get a message across without having to tart it up, then it's not worth reading. I'm trying to figure out how to get Eudora Lite to shove such messages straight into the trash...

By: mtaylor@gipps.com.au
To: All Re:
Re: FidoNews 18:3 [00/03] Ed

From: "Martin Taylor" <mtaylor@gipps.com.au>

Anne Page said..

AP> No. All issues should be in ASCII and those sysops who want to offer it to their users in HTML should convert it to that format themselves.

Excellent advice.

Fidonet, the last time that I looked (and that was some 5 years now), was a text medium.

Fast forward to the present. Usenet and email on the internet is a text based medium. Yet, because of some Microsoft agenda, they are increasingly being hijacked by the HTML brigade? Why, I don't know. HTML does nothing to enhance a message, unless you're fixated by colors or flashing letters.

Plain text means less overheads for those who have to pay to transfer it. It means that everyone can read it without problems.

In Usenet, I do not read html posted messages. When someone sends me an 'enhanced' email, I respond requesting that they set Outlook Express (which is the culprit 99% of the time) to send in "plain text". It's not hard to do. And it makes the other, grumpy folk like me, happier. Plus they get the privilege of me (and like minded folk) reading their messages.

* Origin: Usenet:MJT Ink (3:633/262)

Thu 18 Jan 01 12:29a
By: Dan Ceppa
Re: FidoNews 18:3 [00/03] Editorial

(Editors question: ASCII only or HTML w/photos or both?

GP> investing my money or time in a modern convience I ask myself "what is it going to do for me that I would want done that the old stuff isn't doing" In other words, when it comes to conveying messages in an organized(?) forum what would html do that ASCII doesn't do?

DC> Make it look pretty?

DC>Trust me: I have to work with catalogs written by people that like "fancy things". I need catalogs that are easy to use, not look spiffy.

DC> Those may work for end-users to buy a particular product. But, they don't work for those that need to easily find the correct product to sell them. I want the donw-and-dirty info, not the glitz that not just hides what I'm looking for but often hurts my eyes.

* Origin: Soundly on the Fault Line (1:393/9005.30)