Hi, Winston.
Welcome to alt.windows7.general. I've been here almost since its beginning
in the Spring of 2010, after Microsoft announced that there would be NO
officially sponsored newsgroups to support Windows 7. This newsgroup was
great for a couple of months, until the trolls and other vandals discovered
it. Then, for about a year it became so polluted that it was almost
unusable. Recently, though, it has settled down into a very good newsgroup.
Now, the main problem - in MY view - is the continual arguments over posting
formats, rather than content. As you can see, I still use WLM - now 2011
build 513 - because I'm comfy with it and it does all the important things
that I want it to do - except insert those ">" symbols. As you've explained
countless times in other venues, the Windows Live Team deleted that ability
"with malice aforethought", rather than take the time to fix it, and it's
not likely to return, so I've learned to live with that loss. Now, I'm
mostly happy with WLM; many readers are not. Some have even kill-filed me
and all WLM users. :>{ But enough of my messages get through that I'm
still able to help some posters with problems - and that's what newsgroups
are all about. Still!
Maybe it comes from my 30 years working as an auditor. I tend to ignore the
surface distractions and drill down to the real content. It doesn't much
matter to me if someone top-posts with WLM or bottom-posts with Thunderbird
or posts inline with whatever is handy for the poster. The real question or
answer is in there somewhere and it usually is not hard to find. And I've
learned that my own preference varies, depending on MY mood when I'm reading
newsgroups. The poster can't predict how I will be reading his message.
Usually I prefer to read message threads that are top-posted - but not
always.
Since I visit my favorite newsgroups on a daily basis, I usually prefer to
read threads with the messages top-posted. Then I seldom need to scroll
down at all. I've programmed my mouse button to <Ctrl>+U, so I just read
the top reply, then hit the button and read the next top reply. Until I
come to a bottom-posted message; even then it's no big deal to page down -
while watching for interspersed new content. If I'm interested in the
message, I'll make the effort to understand what has been written, rather
than complain that the poster didn't format it "MY way".
There are some threads where top-posting is not the best format, so then I
try to make my reply format fit the specific message. And, recognizing the
weaknesses of WLM 2011, I often take some extra time to adapt to the
situation, keeping the reader in mind. A technique that I often use is to
copy a specific comment or question from the prior message and paste it
into - or before - my reply, manually adding the ">" or other indicator to
show that it is a quote. (I use Copy, not Cut, leaving the original in
context, too. And I've found that, for paragraphs or other multiple-line
quotes, if I remove the line breaks from what I've pasted, WLM will
re-format the paragraph and insert the ">" marker before each reformatted
line.) When an inline response seems called for, I don't hesitate to use
that technique.
As to the Sig delimiter - that also takes a few extra keystrokes. WLM 2011
insists on adding a line break before it, which I edit out each time. And
then I add a third <Space> after the "-- "; it's not noticeable by the
reader, but WLM no longer recognizes it as a delimiter, so it doesn't delete
the following text. That's a few extra keystrokes for me on each message,
but it helps to keep peace in the family. ;^)
P.S.: For other readers, ...winston, aka G. Winston Natoli, is one of the
few experts on OE/WM/WLM. (Even though he still hasn't deleted "nttp" from
his Spell Checker dictionary. <g>) See his frequent contributions to
microsoft.public.windows.live.mail.desktop and his web page at:
http://liveunplugged.wordpress.com/category/windows-live-mail/
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1
"...winston" wrote in message
Hello Char,
WLM has its weaknesses for plain text responses, one of which is no longer
inserting the '<' character. I don't plan on posting on a regular basis in
this forum though I have been reading it for quite some time.
My primary nttp usage is to moderate two nttp newsgroups (one solely
dedicated to WLM subject matter) on a private server where all subscribed
users (free but registration with a valid email required and sign-on via
username/pw) including moderators and staff tolerate (and or welcome) any
combination of posting (top, bottom, plain text, html, proper/improper
quoting)...and have for years.
Default settings for my build of WLM (due to the above responsibility) is
to configure WLM to reply to messages using the format in which they were
sent, top post like most of those other subscribers and insert the sig
after the response. Thus it's unlikely that I will switch to another news
client or configure WLM to auto-bottom-post as a default.
If someone posts in this forum seeking information on WLM usage in Win7 the
possibility exists I may respond to help that op obtain a focused response
on their question amidst all the other banter (e.g. use a real nntp client
that is intelligible, quotes and sig delimits properly etc.). I might even
suggest that WLM posters subscribe to that private nttp server to obtain a
value-added response on a WLM question.
Likewise, I may share Win7 knowledge to put a thread on track (e.g. my
replies in an earlier thread pointing a user to the MSDN/Technet article
explaining Win7's System/Boot partition nomenclature and another on
migrating OE contacts to WLM on a new Win7)
In the future on long threads where prior details are important I may
bottom post (assuming I remember) to retain the flow of information, though
a quick look shows a few folks replying by top posting (and no one singling
out those users for doing so) and also using WLM <g>.
Thanks for the suggestion on the sig trailing space (I added a trailing
space for the sig I configured to use here, maybe it will show up properly
in this reply even though it being top posted.
Oh...and Nil was partially correct. I'm fully aware of WLM's shortcomings.
Unintelligible ? That's a frame of reference. What I do know for certainty,
I may be one of the few WLM's users that actually is willing and has the
ability to communicate user's concerns directly to Microsoft...at times
even the nttp police's voices need to be heard to put things into
perspective.
--
....winston
msft mvp mail
Hi ...winston,
Congrats on getting the sig delimiter mostly right, (it's showing up
here as a dash-dash and is missing the trailing space, but Agent is
able to overcome that). Now if we could get you to do proper quoting
and avoid top posting, we'd be all set!
