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From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.news,net.news.notes
Subject: Re: Information Overload and What We Can Do About It
Message-ID: <3166@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Sep-85 15:00:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: nsc.3166
Posted: Sun Sep 22 15:00:22 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Sep-85 07:01:39 EDT
References: <10381@ucbvax.ARPA> <3274@nsc.UUCP> <698@tpvax.fluke.UUCP>
Reply-To: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Organization: Uncle Chuqui's Lemming Farm
Lines: 39
Xref: linus net.news:3157 net.news.notes:16

In article <698@tpvax.fluke.UUCP> inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson) writes:
>Chuq Von Rospach {nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA} recently wrote:
>>The ONLY thing the user should see is the subject line.
>
>As one user, I object to this. I make my 'n' decisions at least partly on
>the sender, and in some cases the originating site.

I don't think I was quite clear. That information will still be there 
and available. You would be able to do primary filtering before it ever
hits the user interface. Also, once you get down to the level of an
individual article the same general setup as 'rn' now gives would likely
apply. My comment was aimed at the level of the interface where you decide
whether or not to read an article. Currently, you first have to decide to
read a newsgroup, then you have to decide to read a given article. I'm
proposing making the first decision based on the subject line instead, and
at that point the sender and site information isn't available yet since you
aren't looking at a specific article.

>HOWEVER, I do
>like having my messages grouped by my different interests. I have fun
>"popping in and out" of various groups just to check out what they're
>discussing. If the "newsgroup" concept disappears, it is my opinion that
>the only option left is mailing lists, a clearly inefficient solution to the
>"grouping by interest" dilemna.

I disagree, since the current setup will be replaced by a set of keywords
that will allow you to define and filter material in what I hope will be a
more efficient way. newgroups as they are currently defined would map into
keywords pretty well, and you could set up your filtering mechanisms to let
you browse through a set of interests. 

If it comes together as I hope, you ought to be able to do things pretty
much the way we do it now if you want, but I also expect that you'd be able
to do them a lot better. You don't lose any functionality. you just gain a
lot more flexibility.
-- 
Chuq Von Rospach nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA {decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui

Take time to stop and count the ewoks...


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