Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!know!wex From: wex@pws.bull.com (Buckaroo Banzai) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: selective reading Message-ID: <19083@know.pws.bull.com> Date: 21 Nov 90 23:12:49 GMT References: Distribution: comp.org.eff.talk Organization: Bull Worldwide Information Systems Inc. Lines: 32 In article jmc@Gang-of-Four.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) writes: >Too many articles are posted every day, even for the subset of newsgroups >that interest me. I'm sure everyone else has the same problem. > >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 [...] >Before >suggesting this to the maintainers of newsreading programs, I would >like to see some discussion of the idea, both as a social idea and >technically. Something similar to this idea has (I'm told) grown up on CMU's campus, based around the Andrew Message System. I'm away from my notes, but I think if you check Borenstein's paper in CSCW'88 you'll find some mention of the emergent role of editor in the context of AMS. THe basic idea was that people found that (relatively trusted) colleagues read particular groups and would go to those people to find out what was going on therein. Eventually these people got more or less well known and started redictributing filtered versions all over campus. On the Usenet today, there is rec.humor.funny, which contains culls from the vast volume of rec.humor. Also John Berryhill offers a no-fee occasional compilation of postings to alt.drugs for sites which censor that group. -- --Alan Wexelblat phone: (508)294-7485 Bull Worldwide Information Systems internet: wex@pws.bull.com Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.