Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!garnett From: garnett@cs.utexas.edu (John William Garnett) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Trn and 'subject areas' (was Re: Breaking the group up.) Summary: include a subject area in keywords: field and/or use TRN Keywords: trn subject area rn Message-ID: <259@ar-rimal.cs.utexas.edu> Date: 21 Mar 91 22:22:21 GMT References: <1991Mar21.144242.11655@ims.alaska.edu> <1991Mar21.161808.21001@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <1991Mar21.173105.2755@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu> Organization: University of Texas at Austin Lines: 70 In article <1991Mar21.173105.2755@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu> bill@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu (Bill Roth) writes: >In article <1991Mar21.161808.21001@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> punch@pleiades.cps.msu.edu (Bill Punch) writes: >>Isn't there someway to take a cue from the mac and amiga people and >>start breaking this newsgroup into some pieces PLEASE!. The traffic is >>getting quite heavy and I for one would appreciate some splitting of >>general/programming/software-dist/hardware type topics, or SOME kind of >>splitting anyway. What would it take to do this? > >I would recommend the following breakdown: > This posting is for: 1) those people who would like to see the benefits of splitting comp.sys.next (without actually necessarily splitting comp.sys.next). 2) those people who have access to a comp.sources.unix archive. 3) those people who can install a new news reader (or ask that it be installed). 4) and everyone else who reads comp.sys.next :-). [note: there is an idea near the end of this message that doesn't require trn in order to be implemented] Recently, a modified version of the rn news reader was posted to comp.sources.unix (and should now be available via anonymous ftp on the uunet.uu.net ftp archive). This new version of rn is known as trn. Trn stands for Threaded ReadNews. Trn allows the user to read news one thread at a time (that is, you can read all messages having a giving subject all together - without having to read messages with other subjects). Trn first presents the user with a screen of thread subjects... the user selects those threads he/she wants to read. After reading the desired threads, the user can use the catchup (c command) feature of rn to cause all remaining messages to be marked as read. Trn drastically cuts down on the next that must be spent skipping unwanted news articles (no more "n n n n n"). This answers the main objections that people have to keeping a mambo-sized single comp.sys.next newsgroup. Idea [this idea answers the rest of the objections ]: The effects of a split newsgroup could be more closely approximated if each poster to comp.sys.next would always include a "subject area" indication as the first keyword (in the Keywords: field). This would allow the user to search on a given subject area (thus skipping those undesired subject areas). Some would argue that noone will choose to use this "subject area" recommendation. I think that people are just as likely to indicate a subject area in the keywords line as they are to choose the correct subgroup (out of split hierarchy) to post in. There is still the problem with first time posters not knowing about the "subject area" recommendation, but again this is not a big problem because most comp.sys.next posters are repeat posters (or so I would think). If comp.sys.next'ers agree to this "subject area" idea, then it would be appropriate to discuss what the subject area breakdown should be (yes, I think I heard a few "oh no, not that again" groans :-). This way, the subject area breakdown wouldn't necessarily have to be tied to the idea of a split newsgroup (and thus could be discussed more rationally :-). However, implementing the subject area idea now does have the advantage that if it does come to splitting comp.sys.next in the future, the subject areas would be already decided. -- John Garnett University of Texas at Austin garnett@cs.utexas.edu Department of Computer Science Austin, Texas