Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!uunet!motcid!king From: king@motcid.UUCP (Steven King) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: selective reading Message-ID: <5367@orchid3.UUCP> Date: 19 Nov 90 14:37:30 GMT References: Distribution: comp.org.eff.talk Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL 60004 Lines: 27 In article jmc@Gang-of-Four.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) writes: >Suppose someone undertakes to edit a newsgroup, e.g. this one. He >reads all of it each day and labels some of the articles priority 1 >and priority 2 and ignores what he considers junk. He can use >whatever criteria he likes, e.g. he can ignore all articles that don't >agree with his politics. The articles are suitably marked and anyone >who agrees with this editor's taste can get only those. Sorry to disappoint you, but it's been done. It's being done. And it seems to be working just fine. There's a plethora of moderated Usenet newsgroups. They fall into two categories. The first is strictly editted. All submissions go to the moderator and he chooses to print whichever he feels appropriate. The Telecom Digest (comp.dcom.telecom) is one of these, as is the Risks Digest (comp.risks). The other type of digest more closely follows your idea. For that type the moderator reads a newsgroups and distills it down to just the interesting (his own definition) postings. The group rec.humor.funny is the only one of this type that comes to mind. As far as I know there's no competition among digest editors. I imagine that such a thing would bring about great cries of wasted bandwidth and other evils. -- ---------------------------------------------------+--------------------------- Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all | Steven King four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, | Motorola Cellular sugar, and fat. (Alex Levine) | ...uunet!motcid!king