250163 - (usenetiquette) [META] Facilitate and encourage good Usenetiquette practices

Status: NEW

(MailNews Core :: Composition, enhancement)

Description

[Stewart Gordon]

There seem to be two schools of thought on newsreader design.  One is that of
catering for good netizens, by designing the newsreader around the rules of
Usenetiquette.  The other is that of catering for the masses, who are going to
want to do 'naughty' things (e.g. top-post) from time to time.

The two schools can come together.  I hold that, if we're going to cater for the
masses, we should do it by trying to teach the masses to post to newsgroups in
the correct manner.  Of course, there's always the option of making
Usenetiquette warnings optional, so that people who really do want to ignore
them can stop them coming up.  But they should generally be on by default, so
that people are at least given a chance to learn.

Moreover, even knowledgeable and well-behaved Usenet users would like helping by
a newsreader tailored to them.  It follows that Usenetiquette aids also cover
helping these users by saving their time or catching occasional, accidental
breaches.

This is a tracker for requests to help users follow the rules of the road that
is Usenet.  Since educating users and assisting already educated users go hand
in hand such that the two kinds of RFEs overlap, this tracker covers features of
both kinds.

Bug 3746 - Optional warnings for USENET etiquette errors required by GNKSA
Bug 27768 - Warn user of crossposts when replying
Bug 45137 - Advise users not to use long signature files
Bug 115272 - educate users to quote appropriately
Bug 169614 - Should not allow empty/blank subject for news messages
Bug 192562 - unreasonably long subject lines are permitted
Bug 227376 - Pref: Start my reply with cursor at the top, and put blank lines at
bottom
Bug 250162 - Warn before posting a new newsgroup thread with the same subject
line as an existing one

Comment 1

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

This is mostly a DUP of GNKSA bug 12699.

Comment 2

[Stewart Gordon]

It is distinct in purpose from bug 12699.  There just happens to be a fair amount of overlap.

Comment 3

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

FWIW, the intend of GNKSA is exactly what you eloquently stated here in comment 0.

Comment 4

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

(But I agree that we should not be limited to what GNKSA says, but think and implement how else we can encourage good net behavior.)

Comment 5

[Stewart Gordon]

(In reply to Ben Bucksch (:BenB) from comment #3)
> FWIW, the intend of GNKSA is exactly what you eloquently stated here in
> comment 0.

The intent is to be a standard by which an NNTP client can be considered well-behaved.  OK, so looking at the intro, it seems the original motivation for GNKSA was to help people follow Usenetiquette, but it covers other things, such as providing access to NNTP functionality and correctly following the protocol.  See for yourself:
http://js.home.xs4all.nl/gnksa/gnksa.txt

(In reply to Ben Bucksch (:BenB) from comment #4)
> (But I agree that we should not be limited to what GNKSA says, but think and
> implement how else we can encourage good net behavior.)

Indeed.  This the other part of why this tracker exists.  For example, bug 227376 and bug 250162 are both ones I came up with myself.