[Pan-users] Re: RE: Access provider, email provider, and Pan

[Duncan]

Beartooth <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Sun, 18
Jun 2006 14:04:09 -0400:

> The only .sig I've seen from you for some time is 
> 
> 'Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
> "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
> and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman'
> 
> Did you change it some time back, and then forget you had? (If so, welcome
> to the club!) Or is it everywhere but Gmane -- which is the only venue
> where I seem to run into you, or at least recognize you?

No, that's my gmane sig, as to subscribe to the lists I need to use a
valid address (which is 1i5t5.duncan at cox.net, that's one I five T five
dot duncan, alternate for lists for those reading this thru gmane and thus
getting munged addresses as normally posted), and it hasn't been all
/that/ bad, fortunately.

You wouldn't see me on the general internet, as I'm not much of a poster
there.  I used to be active on comp.dcom.xdsl, and back before the turn of
the century and the switch to Linux, I was actually quite active in the IE
groups and ran the public betas for IE/OE 4, 5, and 5.5.  Nearly all my
posts are to gmane, or to my ISP's local-only cox.* groups.

(FWIW, if you are that curious, I do occasionally post to speak.easy,
which is my former ISP's group, but it's carried globally, not restricted
to ISP only distribution as many ISPs choose to do with their groups. 
It's not incredibly busy and I don't post often as I'm no longer a
subscriber and feel much like a guest, but I'll occasionally answer a
question or comment on something.  My last post there was... June 1.)

Anyway, here's my regular news sig (which you'll see if you go look at the
above group and get messages from the time frame above):

Duncan - Newsgroup replies preferred.  No HTML msgs.  Unmunge address
and add " -news" keyword to end of subject to reply by mail.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

The address I post with is news dot duncan at cox.net, but it's munged to
news.duncan at cox.reply2groups.net.please.

Back with the older PAN, which could remember customized headers, I had
something a bit more elaborate.  The new PAN can do customized headers but
I think it's type them in every time (no memory), so I had to shorten my
instructions to fit them in the sig along with the quote.  Hopefully, the
new PAN will get memorized custom headers again soon and I can go back to
the way it was.  Since you are still using the old version I think, and
for comparison, here's the way I had it before:

Sig:

Duncan - Newsgroup replies preferred.  See x-munging headers.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html

The x-munging custom headers were as follows (note that the RFCs state
that non-standard headers should always be prefixed with x-, thus the
x-munging: not just munging:):

x-munging1: Usenet replies preferred,  If replying by mail,
x-munging2: do ALL the following to avoid the spam traps:
x-munging3: 1) Use plain text.  HTML format auto-trashed.
x-munging4: 2) Kill address reply2group and please phrases.
x-munging5: 3) Put " -news" at the END of the subject
x-munging6: (no quotes, space, dash, news, END)

I preferred that for a couple reasons.  One, the instructions could be a
bit more detailed without causing the sig to violate the traditional
4-line max sig length.  Two, I /do/ normally prefer replies go to the
group, as (a) I normally check news far more frequently than mail, and (b)
news allows wider participation than personal mail -- others may have
answers I miss, and others (including those that don't post) may benefit
from the discussion.  I know I regularly learn stuff from threads I don't
post to.  I still like an unmungable address for truly personal replies
that don't belong on the group, but I only want those motivated enough to
go to the trouble of checking the headers to be able to contact me that
way -- if it's no big deal, let them use the group or not bother.  The
header solution (with the sig pointer) was perfect for that -- more so than
the sig solution.

I also just like the idea of being able to do customized headers, and
impress all those using OE or whatever that doesn't have that capability.
=8^)

So anyway, I do hope the memorized custom headers as part of the posting
profile will eventually be back.  Meanwhile, you have the example you
wanted.  =8^)



-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman