Re^4: Don't Retitle This Node (no /msg)

[tye]

No, it doesn't appear that the latest version of the Janitorial thread retitler sends any /msgs. That'd be a good idea, but it won't work for anonymous root nodes. So there is still reason to err on the side of being Lazy.

[davido]

That's a good suggestion. I've been a little slow at getting to work on the new version that will allow for -- among other things -- a config file containing a canned yet customized janitorial attribution text, login info, and (now that it's been recommended), a canned /msg to root poster if he's not anonymous. I'll also be adding the command-line option to unconsider the root node at the same time that it is retitled.

The best solution to the difficulty caused to Anonymous Monk by retitling his nodes, is to wait a reasonably long period of time before actually carrying out the retitle. Generally the act of retitling is done to improve searchability, and to that end, it doesn't hurt anything to leave a thread untouched for a few days so that AM can still find it.

Update 6/7/05: The auto-/msg feature was added to the Janitor's Thread Retitler as of January 2005, along with a lot of other helpful features including janitorial attribution (annotation as to who janitored a node).

[PodMaster]

I don't know about the retitler, but I thought it was customary for editors to fire off a /msg when they do something like that.

[apotheon]

Alas, custom and guarantee are not the same thing. It's important to ensure that people know their nodes have been retitled, I think, and simply doing so "customarily", but not universally, is a failure. In other words, I agree with davido's assessment (it's a good idea to include that functionality) and tye's assessment (we should err on the side of laziness — particularly appropriate, given that Laziness is one of the virtues of programming).