In gopher space  I've seen a variety of phlog post headers,
text file headers,  or whatever you want to call them.  I'd
like  to  look  at  a few of the styles people have come up
with.  Many people have no header,  and several folks use a
very basic  header or one similar to those below; the one's
I've pasted are by no means comprehensive.

Here are a few, with some slashes to break things up before
each username.  At the end, I have a few more things to say
as well.


//////////////////////// headers //////////////////////////


//// dubst3pp4's header:

     BACK AT WORK                                         2018-04-10
----------------------------------------------------------------------


//// ja's header:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
core                                                       21 Apr 2018
----------------------------------------------------------------------


//// rpod's header:

                        On world creation
                          -=20180423=-


//// tomasino's header:

----------------------------------------
Poison Sumac
April 27th, 2018
----------------------------------------


//// logout's header:

Notice: You can send me comments to my e-mail: [email protected]
or leave a message in guestbook accessible from top-level menu.
--------------------------------

:: 2017/11/28
:: Why does this gopher hole look different?


                                                          2018-04-27
___H_o_l_y_m_o_l_y__f_i_x_e_s________________________________________


//// kvothe's header:

[kvothe // phlog // 2018.04.28: a fun night out.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


//// nydel's header:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
---- 2018.02.22 -----------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------


//// ckeen's header:

                                                          2018-04-27
___H_o_l_y_m_o_l_y__f_i_x_e_s________________________________________


//// solderpunk's header:

Chiptune musings
----------------


//// rach's header:

========================================================================
2018-Apr-15
Blowing the Cloud Away
========================================================================


//// strixy's header:

----------------------------------------
Gone Meta
October 05th, 2017
----------------------------------------


//// sysdharma's header:

--------------------------------------------
Being prepared
2018.04.27 22:17:22 CEST
--------------------------------------------


//// yargo's header:

                         gopherlog mirror // 18-3-18


//// zelbrium's header:

IMAP and the Details of Receiving Email                 Aidan Shafran
                                                  October 15th, 2017


//// ricos header:

14.02.2017
This post is about an interactive fiction game.

Zigamus
========


//// chals header:

The singularity of cron jobs
Wednesday Jan 17  9:50:27 2018
------------------------------


//// dbucklin's header:

From: [email protected]
Date: 2018-04-23
Subject: Evernote Extraction Part II - Vimwiki Inception


//// jirka's header:

New watches
===========

//// jzp's header:

Leggo my ego

Published on Friday, March 2nd, 2018


//// cat has the date in YYYY-MM-DD, and some ascii art.

//// wlsn's header is simply the date in YYYYMMDD format.

//// crc uses a date and a row of 64 dashes

//// papa uses a footer, YYYY/M/DD and username.

//// bradmac has a footer instead, YYYY-MM-DD and email.


//////////////////////// thoughts /////////////////////////

If I wanted to spend more time on  this text file,  I would
take these and organize them by visual type. For myself, at
least, I can see three main styles:

 1. Lines- reguardless of the characters used, and the
    spacing, these headers are using the idea of lines to
    break things up and make their headers more distinct.
 2. Centering - these users are centering text to make
    it stand out as a header.
 3. Art - a few users are including ascii art as a part
    of every phlog post, to have a clear visual indicator
    reminding the reader where they are in gopher space.

People are also tending to include dates frequently, titles
a little less frequently, and contact info even less often.
Justification also looks somewhat common.

I started this file and exercise because I'm used to seeing
these headers,  and  I  was  reflecting on whether or not I
ought to mimic one or create one  or  not  use  one.  Quite
specifically,  I was  thinking that I might be able to make
my circumlunar.space phlog more focused if I started to use
a header in each post indicating which of my main subjects
the post was about. This phlog is, as listed, about:

 ART, WRITING, MUSIC, LANGUAGE, AND MORE

My original thought was to use a header similar to ckeen's,
which might look like:


                                                2018-05-01
___W_R_I_T_I_N_G___________________________________________


Mine would be 60 characters wide,  because I'm stubborn and
lazy.  The header line  wouldn't have an actual title,  but
rather an indication of the subject matter in general.

I also really like ja's header. If I were to use that style
my headers might look like:


-----------------------------------------------------------
Writing                                         01 May 2018
-----------------------------------------------------------


Again, 60 columns. I think I prefer uppercase for the first
letter of the subject word.

Finally, the last option  I  was considering  was  kvothe's
setup, which for me might look something like:


[ [email protected] // 2018.05.01 // Writing ]
-----------------------------------------------------------


This, obviously,  has the benefit of showing quite a bit of
information  about  the  post,  with a width that is mostly
predictable (it would vary only based on the subject.

Now that I think about it, the other benefit of this style,
for me at least, would be that I could use it across all of
my gopher holes, and  the  reader  would be able to quickly
see which hole they were reading on.

A variation on kvothe and ja's headers could include another
line, and maybe some centering:


-----------------------------------------------------------
 [ [email protected] // 2018.05.01 // Writing ]
-----------------------------------------------------------


I'm not sure if the two lines are necessary; I could see it
as  valuable  if  the reader is using a client that doesn't
clear the screen between files/pages, such as VF-1 or sacc,
but for  users of lynx or UMN's client, it might not matter
as much.

My  last  consideration is screen readers.  I don't use one
myself,  but I have played with them a little. I'm not sure
how they deal with lots of dashes and other characters, but
I would  be a bit concerned with a messy header such as the
one above.  The  kvothe/ckeen mixed header really is suited
to people with sight. One of the really, really cool things
about gopher  is that it's well suited to those with visual
impairement. I kind of hate to damage that, and so I'll try
one more style:


-----------------------------------------------------------
   Writing,  tfurrows (circumlunar.space),  5/1/2018
-----------------------------------------------------------

You'll note that I removed the @ symbol, to avoid confusion
with  my  phlog host and any email addresses I may use. The
host  is  just  the  gopher server, not an email or contact
info. I also rearranged things a bit, at an attempt to gain
more clarity.

I  know  I can't make  "the perfect header,"  and that many
headers are just fine. I also know that having no header is
a great option, and I could just leave things as-is. But as
I'm in the mood,  I'm going to go for the above and see how
I like it.

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