Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Time for 8 bit news, isn't it?????.
Message-ID: <3728@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 22 Jul 90 20:29:59 GMT
References: <1990Jul21.054016.10409@looking.on.ca> <3722@auspex.auspex.com> <1990Jul22.085726.22462@looking.on.ca>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 17

>I meant that the chains are broken far too often.  About 6% of followups
>have no references line, and that results in broken chains on about
>40% of usenet messages (every followup to such a followup is broken as
>well.)
>
>So you can't use it like you should.

It works well enough for me.  It's not perfect, but what is?

1) Merely grouping all the articles in a thread together is a big win
   (no, this is not a hypothetical assertion, it is an observation based
   on using "trn" for quite a while); even with no references line on
   the followup, "trn" (or, more correctly, its thread builder program)
   does that by subject matching.

2) *Enough* of the articles have proper reference lines that I can go up
   and down the article tree often enough to make it worthwhile.