[FFML] A thought on the future of the FFML

[The Wanderer]

On 06/26/2013 11:07 AM, Mythril Moth wrote:

>> * The Web forum should display exactly one post per page, just as
>> you don't get the body of more than one E-mail displayed at a time.
>> 
> 
> I don't necessarily agree with this. The ability to follow and review
> a conversation quickly and easily would be a better fit.

That is one of the potential advantages of a Web forum as standing by
itself, yes.

However, for a Web forum that is going to be crossposted with a mailing
list, you need for the quoting styles to be compatible.

The quoting styles which are appropriate in a context where more than
one post is visible at once (such as is done on probably the vast
majority of Web forums) are not appropriate in a context where only one
post is visible at once (such as happens in E-mail), and vice versa. I
went into this in more detail in the post from 2007 which I reproduced
before.

Since we can't make E-mail be a "more than one post visible at a time"
context, because the way E-mail is presented depends entirely on the
user's mail-reader and its configuration, the only way to keep them
compatible that I see is to make the hypothetical Web forum be an "only
one post visible at a time" context.

>> * The post-presentation requirements (plain text vs. full HTML, or
>> some intermediate level of formatting) should be the same for the
>> Web forum as on the mailing list.
> 
> So you're recommending bringing the mailing list into the present by
> leaving it in the past?

No. If you'll notice, the part of that point which you quoted did not
say anything about which requirements should be chosen - only that the
same requirements should be applied in both places.

While I would certainly prefer for the chosen requirements to be either
plain text or something easily convertible to/from plain text (and that
can be discussed separately, though I'm not going to do it right this
moment), that's not essential for the type of dual-interface
compatibility that was being proposed; having the requirements be the
same in both interfaces *is* essential.

-- 
    The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Every time you let somebody set a limit they start moving it.
   - LiveJournal user antonia_tiger