Glenn Fleishman Interrogates the Past

New Articles on a Refreshed Newsletter List

For many years, I’ve maintained a personal announcements email list, which I send out about six to eight times a year, running through my latest projects and upcoming ones, and sometimes offering discounts. I’ve also had an active Patreon for several years, but I never quite got into the groove over there. Patreon has been very successful for people with a larger audience feedback loop, who are creating a recurring sort of thing: videos, podcasts, cartoons, fiction, and so forth. My particular writing niche never quite fit!

So last week, I upgraded the announcement list with a premium option. Regular subscribers still get infrequent project updates. But folks who pay a suggested $3 a month (you pay from $1 to whatever you like) receive at least one new article or essay every month, plus access to premium archives, where I’ll be posting my back catalog of articles.

Writing

what the > ?

Why is the > (or greater-than) character used to precede lines that are quoted from a previous message or forum post? I set out to find out for Meh.com in this article. I confess the ending is a bit of anti-climax: after consulting with the people who, in the early 1980s, wrote Usenet news-reader and distribution software and were involved with the email programs in common use, we pinpointed a particular year and even portion of year — but no one can remember being the person who put it into effect! I hope to one day track this down further.

This article may wind up in the book, as it's on topic, but because I don't have a definitive answer, I'm not yet sure if it'll make the cut. I may work it in in a reduced form.