Extra Long Lines
 

Does anyone else find it annoying when messages are posted to this
newsgroup with very long lines?

It makes them very difficult to read on some newsreaders. I think that
standard 'netiquette' used to be to limit lines to 70 or so lines. Has
that changed?

Chris Gordon-Smith
www.simsoup.info

Re: Extra Long Lines
 

On 10/07/12 22:54, Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:
> Does anyone else find it annoying when messages are posted to this
> newsgroup with very long lines?
>
> It makes them very difficult to read on some newsreaders. I think that
> standard 'netiquette' used to be to limit lines to 70 or so lines. Has
> that changed?

No, but Google in its arrogance ignores almost all conventional netiquette.

--
Ian Collins

Re: Extra Long Lines
 

Chris Gordon-Smith <use.address@my.homepage> wrote:
> It makes them very difficult to read on some newsreaders. I think that
> standard 'netiquette' used to be to limit lines to 70 or so lines. Has
> that changed?

Nobody uses usenet anymore, therefore nobody cares anymore...

Re: Extra Long Lines
 

Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:

> Does anyone else find it annoying when messages are posted to this
> newsgroup with very long lines?

That isn't noticed with a decent newsclient.


Rui Maciel

Re: Extra Long Lines
 

Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com>:
> Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:
>
> > Does anyone else find it annoying when messages are posted to this
> > newsgroup with very long lines?
>
> That isn't noticed with a decent newsclient.

A lot of newsreaders allow long lines to wraparound at the right hand
side of the window. I think its very questionable whether this is
'decent'. On a 19 inch screen it makes text very difficult to read.
There is a reason why 70 - 80 characters was chosen. It was not solely
to do with limitations of technology.

Chris Gordon-Smith
www.simsoup.info

OT Re: Extra Long Lines
 

Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:

> A lot of newsreaders allow long lines to wraparound at the right hand
> side of the window. I think its very questionable whether this is
> 'decent'.

It's the right thing to do. There is a reason why web browsers handle long
paragraphs this way for some decades now.


> On a 19 inch screen it makes text very difficult to read.

I also use screens which are 19 inch and larger, and I don't have this
problem.


> There is a reason why 70 - 80 characters was chosen. It was not solely
> to do with limitations of technology.

The reason for the arbitrary 70-ish column limit was only due to
technology's limits at that time. Since then, decades have passed and those
limits are long gone. In addition, it makes no sense to believe that the
way a paragraph is presented in your client should be set by anyone but
yourself.

You are free to use any usenet client that handles long lines well. For
example, thunderbird doesn't have this problem, and neither does knode or
pan.


Rui Maciel

Re: Extra Long Lines
 

Chris Gordon-Smith <use.address@my.homepage> wrote:
> A lot of newsreaders allow long lines to wraparound at the right hand
> side of the window. I think its very questionable whether this is
> 'decent'. On a 19 inch screen it makes text very difficult to read.

Your screen size only matters if you run your newsreader in full screen
mode.

Tobi

Re: Extra Long Lines
 

Tobias Müller <troplin@bluewin.ch>:
> Chris Gordon-Smith <use.address@my.homepage> wrote:
> > A lot of newsreaders allow long lines to wraparound at the right hand
> > side of the window. I think its very questionable whether this is
> > 'decent'. On a 19 inch screen it makes text very difficult to read.
>
> Your screen size only matters if you run your newsreader in full screen
> mode.
>
> Tobi

So although many newsreaders are windows/GUI programs supporting full,
screen mode, there is a problem if they are actually used in full
screen mode and someone has posted a message without line breaks.

Hardly seems like progress to me.

I suppose posting long lines would be workable if newsreaders wrapped
around at 72 characters, but neither KNode nor Pan seem to do that.

Chris Gordon-Smith
www.simsoup.info

Re: Extra Long Lines
 

Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:

> So although many newsreaders are windows/GUI programs supporting full,
> screen mode, there is a problem if they are actually used in full
> screen mode and someone has posted a message without line breaks.
>
> Hardly seems like progress to me.
>
> I suppose posting long lines would be workable if newsreaders wrapped
> around at 72 characters, but neither KNode nor Pan seem to do that.

They wrap the user's posts, if the user tells them to.

If you are referring to the posts you download from a server then there is
no point in wrapping those. If the width of your newsclient's window is too
wide then you resize the window to better suit your tastes. With today's
monitors, if you run a newsclient fully maximized, the 72-column text limit
means that your newsclient, in spite of covering up the entire desktop, only
displays text on a column about 1/4 to 1/3 of the screen's width.


Rui Maciel

Re: Extra Long Lines
 

Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> writes:

> Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:
>
>>
>> I suppose posting long lines would be workable if newsreaders wrapped
>> around at 72 characters, but neither KNode nor Pan seem to do that.
>
> They wrap the user's posts, if the user tells them to.
>
> If you are referring to the posts you download from a server then there is
> no point in wrapping those. If the width of your newsclient's window is too
> wide then you resize the window to better suit your tastes. With today's
> monitors, if you run a newsclient fully maximized, the 72-column text limit
> means that your newsclient, in spite of covering up the entire desktop, only
> displays text on a column about 1/4 to 1/3 of the screen's width.

So you are saying that the user has to fiddle about with window sizes to
get readable text. Doesn't seem very ergonomic.

I have found a partial solution that I'm trying out. I've switched to
Gnus. It has a 'Washing' menu that includes a 'Fill long lines'
function. This at least seems to make the messages readable.

You might be interested in the following article on optimal line length:
http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability

Chris Gordon-Smith
www.simsoup.info