.
While the PLUG forum and archives are both tremendously valuable,
I have often wondered if there might be some way to perhaps make
it a little more efficient in the way messages are presented.

Many years ago (before the Internet), I hosted a BBS message board
for computer users that used a very simple and efficient format for
posting messages and I'd like to know if that simpler format might
work for the PLUG message exchange.

With no criticism intended for the current system, it does seem
to incorporate a tremendous amount of redundancy.

Just to demonstrate the difference between the current system
and the alternate format I'd like to see PLUG consider, I copied
all the messages from a recent PLUG message thread to one file
and then edited it down to eliminate all the redundancy but
preserve all the unique information, and put that in a second
file for comparison.  The before and after files can be viewed
at the two links listed below.

The original thread, with all of the redundant material is
289 lines with 1150 words, and the edited file with all the
redundancy removed is 46 lines and only 311 words.

See the two files at the following two links:

Before:   http://www.upquick.com/temp/plug1
After:    http://www.upquick.com/temp/plug2

Does this alternate approach seem feasible and worth considering?


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