Hello Maurice,

On Sat, Dec 07 2024 07:45:47 -0600, you wrote ..

> That is why we're giving it at least 7 characters to play with.  I 
> have been known to wrap entire messages to 72 characters just to take 
> care of their obvious handicap.  Them were the good ol' days.

"Good ol' days?" I don't think much has changed.

> Strong like bull, smart like tractor?

Pretty much!

> As far as I know, quoting has never been covered in ftn standards.  
> The tradition has become to put the initials of the quotee in the 
> quote prefix along with the '>' character.  However I think just the 
> '>' character is more universal and makes things easier, especially 
> when using vim or nano as the MSG editor of choice.

Yeah, but common sense would reveal that you probably shouldn't _eliminate_ random text within sentences from the original message that you are quoting. I can see entire sentences or paragraphs, but not whatever is dangling at the end of 80 columns. Darn tractors. :)

The '> ' prefix is definitely more universal, not only for FTN, but newsgroups and email as well. However, initials don't bother me much if they're there or not, as I don't usually look at them, and normally don't quote past the first level anyways.

Regards,
Nick

... He who laughs last, thinks slowest.