High-ascii
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   High-ascii characters are those above ascii 127, i.e.: 128-255
inclusive. These represent cute little boxes and other symbols on IBM
machines. But to other computers they can represent gibberish. That's
because where the codes for characters are fairly standard below 128,
they are divergent above 128. There are many, many high-ascii
character sets.
   FidoNet has a policy of "NO HIGH-ASCII" on the echoes. So if you
have a habit of writing messages with cute boxes, barcodes, and other
fanciness, prepare to stop doing it on any echoed conference. Offline
mail readers are particularly prone to using this kind of stuff to
offset quotes. MegaMail, anyone?
   This is a courtesy to those of us who DO NOT USE IBM-type
computers. There are lots of Mac's, Amigas, and Commodores out there
used by people as users, and often as host machines for BBS's
themselves. We have three FidoNet members in Network 350 who use
Amigas, for example. Macs are equally proficient in using FidoNet.
   High-ascii can also be a problem for some mailer software.
Apparently high-ascii is used as screen writing codes on some
operating systems (OS9 has often been mentioned) which, if you think
about it, would create absolute havoc on the machine that had to
process such messages.
   If you do happen to let high-ascii characters creep into EchoMail,
you're likely to get a note back from the Moderator, and lots of other
users, telling you they are not appropriate.
   For your users there are often special programs they can run to see
high-ascii on their screens. I have lots of high-ascii used on my
menus, and I don't want to remove them. I have some Mac users who use
a special program that can run as a TSR over the communications
program to allow them to see the "beauty of the board." This last has
nothing to do with EchoMail, of course. It's local to my board and
doesn't get sent out anywhere. But high-Ascii is not a trivial
problem, and you shouldn't ignore it or be ethnocentric about it.
   
