Re: So what do you want to use named articles for?

On Thu, Oct 01, 1998 at 01:56:09PM +0000, Charles Lindsey wrote:
> In <19980925102327.16708 <at> main.templetons.com> Brad Templeton <brad <at> templetons.com> writes:
> You are continuing to assume, in spite of all the people telling you to
> the contrary, that named articles should be out of band. I reject that
> idea totally.

You say they should not be out of band.  I say there need to be facilities
to have them both in-band and out of band -- for all users.   I say
allow it both ways, you are set on only the way you prefer.

I do not think there is wide disagreement with allowing both to be possible,
at the choice of the poster.   (While readers who wish to notice updates can
still do so if they have software that does this.)

If there is wide disagreement with that, then let those who feel it come
forward.

> Yes, it was you who proposed an interesting idea, and it is you who are
> resisting all attempts to expand it into something truly useful.

Tell me one feature of your proposal that is not implementable with the
much simpler system I have outlined?   Other than forbidding authors who
wish to post updates without them being visible to users of old readers,
which I hardly consider a feature.

Tell me ONE feature.

> 
> Your proposed uses are of value (though some of them are oversold). But
> they are not the only uses, nor even the main ones as it is turning out.

Huh?  No uses are currently turning out.  Or rather, the only thing we
currently have -- fetch of newsgroup description via special NNTP command --
works exactly as I describe, and there is no newsreader feature matching
what you have described.

Can you please explain your comment about the present state of things?

> 
> Yes, but by working I mean being visible, not being invisible as you
> erroneously suggest. By all means have a configurable option of

Working means if the poster wanted it invisible, it's invisible to the user
of the old software.   So the suggestion is not erroneous. 

> newsreaders not to show articles with the Named header, but don't expect
> people other than yourself to configure it that way.

Do you have evidence either way about how people might configure it?

Has anybody written a newsreader that displays ot users when the newsgroup
description changes?