1. Home
  2. General Wine Forum
  3. OT - the colon and the re:bug

OT - the colon and the re:bug

There is a bug I have recently discovered, in which a subject line prepend (such as TN) which is followed by a colon, when replied to by certain readers (OE being one of them), will lose the prepend, generating a new subject line (which will be sorted elsewhere in the alphabet). Essentially, whatever is in front of the colon is eaten, and replaced with "re".

Subsequent readers who view by subject line will see two lists - one which begins with the prepend (TN) and is sorted under the "T"s, and another which begins with the actual subject, and is sorted wherever it falls in the alphabet. I'd always wondered how that happened, I recently discovered the mechanism. Some readers, to avoid re:re:re:re:... check for the string "re:", but others check for anything in front of a colon.

To avoid this bug (which affects the thread, and thus "other people"), posters could choose to not follow a prepend with a colon. i.e., instead of TN: Moosetoes Chardonnay use a subject line that reads TN - Moosetoes Chardonnay

There is a discussion about this in rec.aviation.piloting if you're curious. I mention it here because a lot of people use "TN:" as a prepend.

That is all. :)

Jose

Reply to
Jose
Loading thread data ...

Yes, as usual M$ has implemented a good idea poorly, resulting in a bug that they'll write off as a "feature." I've noticed the same behavior, but never taken the time to track it down to a particular software item. Please note, though, that if your newsreader uses threading, there should be no problem since the References: header record specifies where in the thread the post in question should go. In my case, I either view the group as threaded or by date (to find the most recent posts after a long absence).

Another possibility is to set it off in brackets [TN]. I'll probably change my posting habits to reduce the confusion.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

But then it's sorted under "[" and not "T". :)

Jose

Reply to
Jose

I'll attempt to change also, but many years of habits (on multiple fora) die hard!

Reply to
DaleW

So here's a funny thing- I posted 2 sets of tasting notes with [TN] prefix. I posted from OE using Motzarella, and viewing on OE I see the prefix. But its not visible on Google groups (the prefix). But I think it picks up the TN if I search (which is why I put the TN on!). Most peculiar.

Reply to
DaleW

Curiouser and curiouser. I saw the two tasting notes (B & Riojas, and B, B, MSR and rain) and both retained the square brackets and the prepend when viewed on Netscape 7.2. Replying in Google did not retain the prepend - I guess Google eats everything in square brackets. However, the OT (space, dash) is retained in google.

Curiouser and curiouser. Yes, computers inside of not very long will have outclevered the human race.

Jose

Reply to
Jose

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.