Re: [ba-ohs-talk] backlink database data
cdent@burningchrome.com wrote:
>
> On Sat, 8 Dec 2001, Eugene Eric Kim wrote:
>
> > A very good thought, and should be fairly easy to do. Won't solve
> > everything, though. Some people don't follow the convention of "--"
> > preceding a .signature.
>
> The convention is supposed to be "-- " but I think that's falling out
> of the common brain in the last few years. (01)
I would recommend against any programmatic changes in people's emails.
There are legal issues to begin with. Some people have legal disclaimers
in their signatures that are required of them in their jobs, etc. (02)
Secondly, because signatures are not consistent, and because code
segments are included in this type of list and are unpredictable, it's
likely that any selected algorythm would truncate a message here or
there. And what's the real value here? A small amount of saving in
diskspace or downloaded content at the expense of modifying the content
that people send to a list. (03)
I've been doing email since about 1982 (as far as I can remember) and
I've never noticed any conventions for signatures that are demonstrably
conventions. People using Netscape or Outlook might have signatures
that match what those programs produce, but (for example) I always rid
my messages of that autoproduced "--", as it serves no useful purpose
since it's not a standard nor a real convention. Just noise. (04)
Murray (05)
...........................................................................
Murray Altheim <mailto:murray.altheim@sun.com>
XML Technology Center, Java and XML Software
Sun Microsystems, Inc., MS MPK17-102, 1601 Willow Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025 (06)
Rally against the evils of iceburg lettuce!
Grab a kitchen knife and join the Balsamic Jihad! (07)