[SC-Help] Re: Spammers getting smarter?

[Mike Easter]

Mike Easter wrote:
> There's another separate issue which is about housekeeping and proper
> quoting and citing which has nothing to do with the rest of this, so I
> think I'll put that in another post.


Jeff wrote:

<this part is my cite, but I wasn't attributed and my quotation wasn't
'depicted' as being by me in your post.  It gained those little marks
because my OE put them there because it looked like your own words>

> In the very unusual situation that a spam needs to be opened, it can
> be opened in OE6 without rendering html by configuring to read as
> plaintext
> in OE/ Tools/ Options/ Read tab - check read messages in plaintext.
> You can also toggle OE to go offline by putting an online/offline
> toggle in your toolbar, or by using File/ Work Offline to prevent
> webbug access if you are rendering spams for some reason in spite of
> my opinion.  Your preview function should be disabled in OE/ View/
> Layout - Preview Pane - uncheck Show preview pane.  The other
> configuration that some people use
> is in OE/ Tools/ Options/ Security - check do not allow attachments to
> be opened or saved.  Those of us who don't open spam or virms can be
> configured differently than those who do.


<this part is Jeff's cite, and it shows up properly with little 'quote'
marks in this > shape because I'm configured to do that>

> The problem with doing that is I noticed after I did disable HTML in
> e-mails, e-mails don't load right for legitmate ones.  I get ones from
> Yahoo! Groups everyday and its necessary for those to have HTML
> required.  I also view the pictures in the preview window so I can't
> turn that off either.  Those two solutions/suggestions aren't
> practical for me to use.


In OE, the place to configure to create the quote marks for the other
person's remarks is in OE/ Tools/ Options/ Send tab - News sending
format section - Plaintext is checked - Click Plain Text Settings -
check MIME and select encode text using None and Automatically wrap text
at 72-74 chars and check Indent the original text with >

OE has some problems with its handling of all that, and it can be
improved upon with OE QuoteFix, but that's another subject.

Here is an article which appears regularly in a newsgroup called
news.newusers.questions and a link to another article about the same
thing.

<snip>
[TIP] How to format responses to postings

When you post a response to another posting, you should normally "quote"
(include) some of the text from that posting, to give readers some
context for your own words.  Most newsreading software can automatically
quote the entire text of that posting for you, prefixing each line with
a ">" symbol to indicate that it is quoted material.

To save network resources, server disk space and readers' time, you
should use this complete quoted copy only as a starting point, as
follows:

1. You should delete material that is not directly relevant to your own
response.  Keep only enough to establish some context for your words.
Often a sentence or two will be all you need.  You do not need to quote
people's "signatures;" see point 4 below.

2. You should place your own comments after the words that you are
responding to, so that others can easily read things in sequence.

3. If you are responding to several points in the original posting, so
that you have to quote a fair amount of it, intersperse your comments in
point/counterpoint style.

4. Make sure you attribute quoted comments correctly, especially when
there are "nested quotes."  Most newsreading software puts something
like "Joe Blow wrote:" at the beginning of quoted material; don't delete
it.

For a more detailed discussion of the rationale behind these "rules,"
and responses to some common objections, see

http://members.fortunecity.com/nnqweb/nquote.html
</snip>


-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin