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From: webber@brandx.rutgers.edu (Webber)
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.misc,news.software.b
Subject: Re: How long would it take to actually read all of news?
Message-ID: <361@brandx.rutgers.edu>
Date: Sun, 13-Sep-87 02:22:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: brandx.361
Posted: Sun Sep 13 02:22:14 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Sep-87 19:45:06 EDT
References: <1475@aramis.rutgers.edu> <923@s.cc.purdue.edu>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 26
Summary: not a good solution
Xref: mnetor news.groups:1530 news.misc:917 news.software.b:807
To: webber@aramis.rutgers.edu


In article <923@s.cc.purdue.edu>, rsk@s.cc.purdue.edu (Whitewater Wombat) writes:
> Actually, "rn", and possibly other news-reading programs that I'm not
> as familiar with, have already attacked this problem and have made good
> progress towards solving it.  The use of rn's "kill files" and 'j' and
> 'k' commands at the article selection level allows quick weeding of
> many articles.

I think you missed the point.  I am not interested in having decisions
about what news I read made for me (by either people or programs) -- I
am interested in being able to make a maximum number of those as
quickly and efficiently as possible.  To the extent that such
decisions get forced upon me by those at other sites, I would prefer
that they were made randomly than that they were made by ``people who
think they know what is best for me''.  And above all, I would prefer
they were made minimally, i.e., that as much as possible would be sent.

Incidently, a few people have remarked that spending a few hours every
few days reading news is excessive.  Well, if every few days I read
the last few New York Times, it would take longer.  And ultimately,
I find a day's worth of netnews much more interesting than a day's worth
of the New York Times.  For the New York Times is mostly raw data (or
as raw as they know how to make it) whereas the net is mostly raw thought
(most of which would be lost otherwise -- sometimes it is a miracle
that they were maintained long enough to post a message).

----- BOB (webber@aramis.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!webber)