Stylesheets - OT: new Google groups (was: Re: Firefox print background image bug?)

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OT: new Google groups (was: Re: Firefox print background image bug?)

Spartanicus

2005-01-29, 7:16 am

jim@jibbering.com (Jim Ley) wrote:

>
>Why not send your complaints to them as they're requesting them? That
>will increase their support costs of google groups, forcing them to
>invest more in educating their users in good behaviour.

I don't hold out any hope that it would make a difference given that
they've already replaced the old (better IIRC) interface with the "beta"
interface. That suggest that the consultation period has ended.

The posting conventions in the web authoring groups are afaik not the
norm, most groups afaik are more liberal regarding posting conventions.
That makes it hard to argue that Google's interface should default to
the rules that apply here.

Given the way Google groups currently works it's probably a bit much to
expect users to follow the posting conventions that apply here. I'm
guessing that they'd have to copy the text of the message they respond
to, manually type an attribute line, paste the original message below
it, manually insert the ">" quote prefixes, and then reply.

So instead of blaming users for what is more Google's fault I've added
Google groups to the other usenet web interfaces who's messages I
filter. The added benefit is that the messages from users who use a web
interface to usenet tend to be FAQs for help that I consider as noise.

--
Spartanicus

Spartanicus

2005-01-29, 12:17 pm

"Alan J. Flavell" <flavell@ph.gla.ac.uk> wrote:

>When visiting a new country, it's advisable to observe the natives for
>a little while, and try to make a reasonable impression, don't you
>think?

No more ardent supporter of the posting conventions than myself I can
assure you. I just got tired of the number of malformed posts since the
new Google interface was launched. Asking users to mend their ways seems
unlikely to yield the desired result, requesting them to change the way
they reply can itself be considered noise.

--
Spartanicus

Nick Theodorakis

2005-01-29, 7:19 pm

Spartanicus wrote:

[...]

>
> No more ardent supporter of the posting conventions than myself I can
> assure you. I just got tired of the number of malformed posts since
the
> new Google interface was launched. Asking users to mend their ways
seems
> unlikely to yield the desired result, requesting them to change the
way
> they reply can itself be considered noise.
>

As a test, I'm replying to this message using google groups rather than
my usual news server and client.

It does appear that it is possible to reply to a message and have it
contain properly quoted text, but it is not immediately obvious how to
do so. Rather than using the default "reply" link when reading a
message, one must first use the "show options" link, then select the
"reply" link therein. This shows the quoted message in text box, in
which one can type or edit. Morever, other options available to actual
newsreaders become visible, such as the ability to add (or delete)
cross-posted news groups or to set a follow-up group.

Since google does have a mechanism for including quoted text, I do find
it rather curious that they have hidden this option in the default
reply mode.

Nick
--
Now we will see if google retains the space after the dashes in the sig
sep.

Dave Patton

2005-01-29, 7:19 pm

Spartanicus <me@privacy.net> wrote in
news:00lmv0trd6l94iar54e1fabql2ffd72m6s@news.spartanicus.utvinternet.ie:

> I don't hold out any hope that it would make a difference given that
> they've already replaced the old (better IIRC) interface with the "beta"
> interface. That suggest that the consultation period has ended.

Don't know how long it will last, or if it's true for
other 'country-specific' versions of Google, but
http://groups.google.ca/
still has the old interface :-)

--
Dave Patton
Canadian Coordinator, Degree Confluence Project
http://www.confluence.org/
My website: http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/