[upchuck]

One of the really nice things about FR is that you can click on a link, read a posted article and then comment on it. All without having to visit the article's home website.

As someone who is stuck with 56K dialup for the foreseeable future, I appreciate this feature very much. Not having to wade through some newspapers' website with large graphics, commercials and pop-up windows is a real blessing.

But I notice some FReepers excerpt even when not necessary. I get the impression there's a feeling of, "I can't keep track of what should and should not be excerpted, so I'll just excerpt everything I post." IMHO, this abuses one of the best features of FR.

It would be very helpful if there were a consolidated list of publications we must excerpt. In alphabetical order by publication name. Maybe as a drop down box on the posting page?

As long as I'm up here on the soapbox... a suggestion. If you DO have to excerpt, see if there is a "printer friendly" version of the article and link to that. These versions usually don't have all the graphics and pop-up windows.

upchuck is off the soapbox. Next?

[Ex-Dem]

There's no need to excerpt without reason, IMHO.

There's already software in place that will warn you if an article is from a source that requires excerpting. So, if I were to try post a full WP, MSNBC, LAT, etc. article for example, I wouldn't be able to it.

I like your idea about linking to printer-friendly (text) pages. Some people want links that go to the page with all the photos related to the story though. Someone can probably find ways to accommodate both groups. Maybe something you can talk to JimRob about...

[John Robinson]

The next version of FR's software is going to offer a proxy option for all external links. In the meantime, try this proxy to speed up your surfing: http://webwarper.expr.net/

[John Robinson]

(Try Super Dense mode to turn off all graphics.)