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In article OE65c9NUpuabjKoMFYs0000242b@hotmail.com you write:
what i meant by "weird" was that the people using the site are not necessarily technically competant, and i think some of them will be confused seeing an email that they never knew existed.
One could also argue that those less-technically-competent people will never get to *be* technically competent if well-meaning techies continually attempt to shield them from the horrors of such nefarious things as...email headers. I know that many people (myself included) post questions here and sometimes get back a note saying, roughly, "if you don't like it, go rewrite the source". Being only a moderate coder, I recognize that this is often intimidating advice when handed down from the seasoned pros. But at the same time, I would advise that there are points where one doesn't *need* to modify the source, and coddling the web-fed masses who might not be aware that email exists or has headers is one of those times. If they're joining a mailing list, whether by email or web form, they'd better get used to headers, and damned quickly. They're going to see them. One of my pet peeves is seeing how often people try to reinvent the wheel and to shoe-horn it into a new medium like the web. I've seen so many botched implementations of web-mail and web-news and web-lists and web-BBS that it's shocking. Reminds me of two very pertinent quotes:
"When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail." -- Abraham Maslow
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly. -- Henry Spencer
The point being, email works, and works well. Web-based email is certainly easier for beginners, but often lacks the complex functionality that advanced (or even moderate) users need. Usenet (despite the spam) works, and allows tens of millions of people to communicate, thread discussions, use kill files, etc. Web-based posting systems such as Slashdot or even Deja/Google Groups tend to suck. Threads might last for all of a dozen or so posts, then get lost in the interface, and die out. Try to find a thread in Slashdot that has lasted more than 3 days. I'd be very interested to see it. The old adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" holds here. Email headers exist for a reason, and while they might confuse a newbie, that newbie will quickly learn to mentally filter them out until such point as they need them. If they *do* need them, and you've removed them, then they'll be cursing you, even if they don't know who's responsible.
My $.02, responding to a thread from about 12 days ago. Something you probably won't find on a web-based discussion.
Pat ___________________Think For Yourself____________________ Patrick G. Salsbury - http://reality.sculptors.com/%7Esalsbury/ Fuel Cells: Electricity for home, car, or business. 0% emissions, 0% charge-time. - http://reality.sculptors.com/%7Esalsbury/Fuel-Cells/ ---------------------------------------------------------