[HPFGU-Feedback] Re: An Elfly Reminder

[Jordan Abel]

On 8/21/06, Steve <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
> As you rightly point out in your example, that act of replying adds
> the attribution header at the top, in a multi-response post each
> person is identified as shown in your example, but it's not still not
> that clear who said what.

Random832:
It's only 'not that clear' if you don't know how it works. How it
works is: EVERY SINGLE line with N ">" marks in front of it was
written by the person identified in the attribution line with N-1 such
marks. It couldn't be simpler. I don't see how it is in any way the
_least_ bit unclear.

bboyminn:
> Is... [snipped, standard way]  or - [snipped, weird way] more clear and
> less subject to confusion or misinterpretation?

Random832:
The first is more clear because I know how it works. I honestly did
find the other way confusing when I first encountered it. The first
also requires _no_ effort. Better to have a way that works every time
and can be correctly interpreted 100% of the time despite being a
little counterintuitive than a way that requires lots of extra effort
by every poster and leaves a very real risk of _not getting done_ if
someone's not paying attention or forgets etc

bboyminn:
> You are free to have your opinion, you are free to lobby the
> moderators to accept your opinion as policy, but until such time our
> standard are our standard independant of what the Internet does or
> what anyone else thinks.

Random832:
Write an email client that does it. Until there's a special HPfGU
client that quotes things the HPfGU way, you can't claim that this
community is somehow separate from the rest of the internet when we
use the same programs to access it and the way the rest of the
internet does things is intimately tied into the way those programs
work.

bboyminn:
> Again, I support these standards because I see them work effectively
> day after day, year after year, for many many years. You don't mess
> with success,

Random832:
Irony, much? How "many years" has the HPfGU way worked? I believe
someone said it started in its present form after the OOtP release,
that's, what, 2003? Generally "many many years" means more than three.
As opposed to the standard way, which has worked for literally
_decades_.

But anyway... regardless of the specific way the attributions are
interleaved, once I know that the text with two marks in front of it
was written by "Ben", why do I need to be told AGAIN who's at that
level unless it changes?

Note to the one person here who uses a screenreader: I haven't
forgotten about you, but I'm trying to make a point here. You'll
notice that I have been including self-attributions/etc even while
arguing against them - more carefully, even, here than in most of my
posts.

bboyminn:
> although the Mods and Elves are more than willing to
> find ways to improve upon success. As right or wrong as your method
> may be, I don't see it as improving on function, effectiveness or success.

Random832:
It improves on effectiveness because it's d*** near impossible for
someone to screw up unless they do so deliberately.

-- 
Random832, who has yet to be given a satisfactory explanation of how
signing these things helps anyone, particularly given the fact that my
name's already present a mere five lines above this signature.