Posted by Michelle Steiner on 11/16/47 11:36

In article <422tdcF1g7nnfU1@individual.net>,
Ian Gregory <foo@bar.invalid> wrote:

> > different newsgroups maybe? Of course, if someone uses slashes and
> > someone else uses underscores, it's to bring attention to what's
> > between them; however, we really don't know what the poster had
> > meant by them, do we--and does it really matter whether I emphasize
> > with /slashes/, with _underscores_, or with *asterisks*? You know
> > that it's for emphasis.
>
> Well reading your post in slrn (text mode newsreader) the word
> "slashes" in the above paragraph appears as normal text, the word
> "underscores" is underlined, and the word "asterisks" is in bold.

Wow, a txt newsreader that actually understands standards. Maybe I
should fire up terminal.app and use it to read newsgroups with slrn.

> Since slrn makes a pretty good attempt to do what is right this seems
> to indicate that underscores and asterisks in Usenet conventionally
> mean underline and bold respectively, but my understanding has always
> been that they were just alternative ways of indicating emphasis. As
> to what slashes mean I have no idea - I have never noticed them being
> used on Usenet until I read this thread (and I have been a Usenet
> user since the late 80s).

Exactly.

--
Stop Mad Cowboy Disease: Impeach the son of a Bush.

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