Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cica!iuvax!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Tired of bogus subject lines?
Message-ID: <15787@looking.on.ca>
Date: 17 Sep 89 03:59:08 GMT
References: <2454@auspex.auspex.com> <13666@well.UUCP> <2461@auspex.auspex.com>
Reply-To: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 19
Class: discussion

The nice thing about the References line is that it represents a *tree*, not
a stream.  The "Re:" subject line only connects all messages with the root
of that tree, unless the subject is edited.

It would be very useful to use the full tree.  You can get rid of, or more
to the point, deliberately follow, interesting subtrees without the other
subtrees getting in your way.  For example, this discussion, "Tired of bogus
subject lines" has discussions about NN, References, possible forged usenet
messages, mailing lists and more.  It would be good to be able to select.

Yes, a clever reader can make guesses when it sees an article that has the
references line damaged, but it can't ever do a perfect job.  You will either
be forced to see damaged messages to see if they match the subtrees you
are following, or ignore them all, and miss things in the trees of keenest
interest.   Of course, even smart mailing list interfaces with lots of
databases of subjects can't fix this.  But the groups with ML gateways are
known, and this can be dealt with.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473