Stephanie da Silva wrote:
> I have a hi-res colour monitor and this pretty spiffy X-windows
> client, but my text windows are black on white. I like them that
> way. I find it odd this attitude that if I'm not using Netscape
> to read mail, then somehow I'm crippled.
I think the question of the specific tools in use, now or in the future,
is entirely separate from the question of the utility of having formatted
messages.
Yes, Netscape is a pig and buggy, but name me ANY complex piece of software
that doesn't exhibit one or both of these traits. I work on PC's, Macs,
and UNIX systems, they all have their good and bad points, both at the OS
level and at the application software level.
I'm really somewhat split on the issue of the utility of formatted messages.
I would note that literary authors over the ages have generally found mere
text to be wholly adequate for their needs, even today. On the other hand,
I don't know that plain text would work for a geometry textbook, and by
extension for a message on a geometry discussion forum.
Plus, I've been taking an online course through UCLA the past few weeks,
using the Embanet virtual classroom environment. This gives us pretty much
the same formatting capability as MS Word in things like font, color, and
style.
Though what I'm discussing with my fellow students is completely text driven
(it is a course in screenwriting), I find that using multiple type sizes,
boldface and colors, just to pick three formatting capabilities, makes it
MUCH easier for me to emphasize that which I feel needs emphasis to my
fellow students and I find that reading well thought out formatted messages
from them is somewhat easier than reading plaintext messages, too.
We have at least one student who is using the Embanet web interface instead of
the specialized client (based on FirstClass), and I find that the limited
ability of web-based students to format messages like the rest of us is a
problem in quickly comprehending their work.
Now, I think it is possible to go overboard with formatting, a look at
almost any randomly selected website will provide sufficient evidence of
that point, but I'm now inclined to believe that GIVEN THE PROPER TOOLS and
intelligent use of the capability, And at that point what we have is an
issue in EDUCATING our users, not a technology limitation, artifical or
otherwise. (My perennial concerns about bandwidth issues is still a factor,
but probably not an insurmountable barrier.)
I don't think we have those proper tools yet, Stephanie's laments about
Netscape being a case in point, and of course some types of lists may benefit
more from message formatting than others, but I don't believe that we
should preclude ever finding a use for, and acceptance of, formatting
capabilities if we are running a forum which would benefit from it.
--
Mike Nolan
