Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!vnend
From: vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Article Classification is the key to solving USENET problems.
Message-ID: <8525@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 18 May 89 21:29:43 GMT
References: <3222@looking.UUCP> <3233@looking.UUCP> <8376@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <3239@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James)
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 73

In article <3239@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
)In article <8376@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James) writes:
)You do not have it straight.  I am suggesting, and have never done anything
)more than suggest, that the more information the newsreader can tell about
)the article, the better, and that we should strive in that direction, and
)to help in striving in that direction, I am going to give away some software.

	But your example (the undergrad bit I think it was?) clearly 
indicated that you meant the poster.  I agree that more information on
articles would help some people in their news reading, but don't think     
that anything short of an automated way of generating that information
will be effective, any more than keywords and summaries are universally
used now.

	I also read, perhaps mistakenly, your original posting to imply 
that you would make the reader you have writen available, but unless certain
factors that you had assumed in writing it (and had found to be unrelyable)
were fixed that it wasn't any use... rather than considering that fixing the
program would be easier than fixing (assuming it is broken) the net.

	And even the broken is questionable.  rn will only handle reference
lines up to a certain length, after that it crashes messily.  Your posting
of sites that had broken news programs included phoenix, the site I post 
from... and probably all 3 of the examples you noted were mine!  I've
gotten tired of rn dying in the middle of a post, so I long ago started
editing extremely long reference lines...  which you're study would report
as a broken mailer.

 
)This is chutzpa?  I have never done anything but suggest, and never suggested
)that anybody's net activity be dictated -- except when it comes to defining
)the format of news articles.  Quite the reverse, as you may remember -- I'm
)the one that some other people want to dictate to, for some reason. :-(

	I'm sorry, I could have sworn I saw a posting from looking that
suggested that sites generating what you called broken reference lines
be given some time to clean up their act or have their feeds cut off.

	Hmmm...  Yes, that.  Someone wanted to cut off your postings
because they found some of them offensive, and went to great lengths
to do so.  Now you are advocating a method that would encourage at least
partial exclusion of their material based on factors other than what they
say, and have gone to moderate lengths to enable it.

 
)To clarify one point, I did overemphasize that the header should contain
)information about the poster.  I meant to say 'posting', so don't get your
)shorts in a knot.   In fact, what I would like to see is a combination
)of information, with a little reasonable information about the poster and
)lots about the posting.

	I think I saw a posting on ahead about what you consider 
reasonable information on the poster, I'll defer comment till I get
to it again.

 
)>	I'm afraid to ask, but in truth am only interested to see what it 
)>tells us about you.
)
)Why is it that you can't post anything on this net, even in news.admin
)(which is supposed to contain more experienced netters) without immediate
)rounds of personal attack and the questioning of people's motives?  Sheesh!

	I'm sorry you took that as an attack, I'm mearly questioning the
rationality of your suggestion, and wondering what it means about the
thought processes behind it.  As for more experienced netters... ha...


-- 
Later Y'all,  Vnend                       Ignorance is the mother of adventure.   
SCA event list? Mail?  Send to:vnend@phoenix.princeton.edu or vnend@pucc.bitnet   
        Anonymous posting service (NO FLAMES!) at vnend@ms.uky.edu                    
                           "The plot thicks..."