Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!ox.com!ox.com!emv From: emv@ox.com (Ed Vielmetti) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: selective reading Message-ID: Date: 26 Nov 90 02:55:16 GMT References: <5367@orchid3.UUCP> Sender: usenet@ox.com (Usenet News Administrator) Distribution: comp.org.eff.talk Organization: OTA Limited Partnership, Ann Arbor MI. Lines: 33 In-Reply-To: king@motcid.UUCP's message of 19 Nov 90 14:37:30 GMT In article <5367@orchid3.UUCP> king@motcid.UUCP (Steven King) writes: 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. 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.... 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. comp.archives is an example of the 2d type, exc. instead of distilling from a single group or from an incoming stream of mail (a la rec.humor.funny) it takes its source material from a bunch of groups. It's not really a discussion group though, and the material doesn't age as much with time as (say) this group does; while you might want to look through an index of 6 month old comp.archives articles looking for something, chances are you're not going to be too keen on trying to keep up with conversations here with a lag of even as little as a week. Moderated groups are also prone to failure, e.g. the periodic disappearance of comp.sys.sun whenever the moderator gets a new (and better) job. --Ed emv@ox.com moderator, comp.archives member, league for programming freedom