Path: utzoo!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Just how useful is crossposting?
Message-ID: <14930@bfmny0.UU.NET>
Date: 19 Nov 89 02:43:48 GMT
References: <47326@looking.on.ca> <1989Nov14.195710.11774@NCoast.ORG> <48887@looking.on.ca> <1989Nov17.231128.20369@rpi.edu> <1989Nov18.165018.11206@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff)
Lines: 23
Summary:
Expires:
Sender:
Followup-To:

The two extreme positions "keep only the latest reference" versus "keep
the whole chain regardless of length" are not the only workable options.
A compromise is possible: keep the root ID and the last up-to-N parent ID's.
As each new followup is added to a long discussion, the first reference
(the root) is retained in-place, and the newest reference ID shifted into
the 2nd-thru-last reference list.

	ref: <a> <b> <c> <d> <e>

	ref: <a> <c> <d> <e> <f>

	ref: <a> <d> <e> <f> <g>

	etc.

This way, root-based thread management systems stay happy, context-based
managers have the maximal chance to place an article where it belongs
(since there are multiple ancestors listed), but the overall length of
the references line stays manageable.

-- 
Psychoanalysis is the mental illness   \\\    Tom Neff
it purports to cure. -- Karl Kraus      \\\   tneff@bfmn0.UU.NET