Offtopic noise: Re: BBC iPlayer viewers now need a...

[C E Macfarlane]

Please see below ...

www.macfh.co.uk/CEMH.html

Note: When you reply to an email message, the header of the message being
replied to is normally here, so your placing of some, but not all, of your
reply here makes it look as though the rest of the message beyond the header
below is just untrimmed quoting, and, habitually, therefore not worth
scrolling down any further for.  If you want people to be certain of seeing
and reading ALL of your message, it would be better to not to write anything
here, but instead ...

>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: get_iplayer [mailto:get_iplayer-bounces at lists.infradead.org]On
>     Behalf Of Shevek
>     Sent: 17 May 2016 13:33
>     To: c.e.macfarlane at macfh.co.uk
>     Cc: get_iplayer; David Woodhouse
>     Subject: Re: Offtopic noise: Re: BBC iPlayer viewers now need a...

... start here!  So (quoted out of order in the interests of clarity) ...

>     Er, did you actually bother reading to the end of my reply where I did
>     reply to your points?

... I'm sorry, but, for the above reason, I didn't see the rest of your
message, for which I accept responsibility of habit, not laziness, as I
think you must also accept some responsibility for confusing quoting.

>     Outlook does not put in the " Please see below ..."

Nobody's complaining about "Please see below ..."

To return to the missed section of your earlier post ...

>     How many people on this list do you think know about NNTP, let alone
>     use it still?

I don't know, and I suspect neither do you, but the fact that they are using
something involved as GiP instead of just a normal PVR implies a level of
technical willingness to learn.

>     You are asking probably 90-95% of this list to:

You have no real basis for such figures, the truth is that neither of us
knows what the percentage would be.

>     a) download and install a client (I am aware that some use email
>     clients with built in news reading capabilities [snip])

Yes, and, depending on your OS, there are various other possibilities.

>     b) gain access to an NNTP service (not all ISPs provide it any more)

For text only, there are many free options, it's usually only binary
downloads that require payment.

>     c) configure the client

Usually easier than trying to configure an email client.

>     d) learn to use the client

Again, pretty easy.

>     e) learn new rules

Not much different from a list such as this.

>     People know web forums and people know email. Asking them to use a 90s
>     technology is, frankly, ridiculous.

Email, newsgroups, and web forums all date from a similar era!

So your so-called 'obvious' arguments are all straw men, you haven't really
got a single, cogent argument at all!

I am merely pointing out that the requirements of this list might be better
served by a newsgroup rather than a web-forum.  That the majority of people
here may not WISH to migrate to a newsgroup I can entirely accept, but there
is no technical or similar reason to prevent it.