Subject Re: formatting messages in the NG From Mervyn Bick <invalid@invalid.invalid> Date Thu, 4 Feb 2021 15:58:54 +0200 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started On 2021/02/02 22:26, Gaetano D. wrote: > > Hi All, > > I use Thunderbird as news reader and I was looking for a way to use bold > fonts to *highlight *parts of my messages and for a way to use the full > width of the window when typing messages. > > The only way I found is to switch to HTML format. Two questions in this > respect: > >  1. is there any limitation on using HTML on the dBase newsgroups? >  2. is there a way to use simple formatting in plain text mode >     (bold/underline/italics) and to make Thunderbird use the full width >     of the screen when composing text messages? There used to be a set of rules on the dBASE website but this disappeared when the website was revamped a while back. I have an idea that a requirement was plain text.  The rest was more or less plain commonsense.  No bold language, no personal attacks, limit the amount of text quoted and stay on topic.  English is not the home language for all users so comments on spelling and grammar are not acceptable. Back in the days when the late Alan Katz owned dBASE "rulz was rulz". He monitored the news groups closely.  The slightest deviation from the rules brought a quick slap on the wrist.  He was particularly obsessed with the "stay on topic" rule.  He wouldn't allow a "watercooler" news group for general, non-technical discussions.  Any "chit chat" brought him running. The present owners of dBASE appear to be far more relaxed.  The only newsgroup that appears to be monitored regularly is bug-reports where Kathy gathers the reports for further processing.  Even there straying off topic doesn't bring censure. Back in the day there were users who still used DOS based newsreaders which couldn't handle HTML.  I doubt if this applies any more so there shouldn't be a reason to bar HTML text.   There were also users who used SLOW dial-up connections so there was a reason to limit quoting.  I doubt if anyone still uses a dial-up connection so excessive quoting doesn't pose a transmission problem.  Not being willing to spend a few moments deleting excessive quoting does, however, point to a lack of respect for other users.  It irritates the heck out of me when I have skip down several pages of irrelevant quotes to get to a couple of lines of comment just because someone was too damn lazy or inconsiderate to take a few moments to remove the rubbish. Personally, I have no problem with you, or anyone else for that matter, using HTML instead of plain text.  On the other hand, I'm more interested in the contents of messages than in how "pretty" they look. As for Thunderbird limiting text to about 70 characters per line while one is writing, this is of little consequence.  Thunderbird does not insert "hard" line feeds so if a newsreader has the capability and has room to show more than 70 characters per line the lines will be formatted accordingly. Mervyn.