Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!bfmny0!tneff From: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: Articles most often cited in comp.all Message-ID: <15039@bfmny0.UU.NET> Date: 28 Dec 89 21:18:32 GMT References: <6872@tank.uchicago.edu> <4510@hydra.gatech.EDU> Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) Lines: 38 Part of the problem with this 'most often cited' index is that the originator seems to fatally misunderstand the idea behind the monthly 'Top Submitter' lists from UUNET. They are not AWARDS, they are NUISANCE bulletins! Being the top submitter is a mark of concern, not honor. What is the implied message behind this 'service'? Here, these are the busiest discussions, hurry over and 'pile on' while you still can? What kind of message gets the most descendants, in real net life? Pithy, information-packed postings in the finest Usenet tradition are seldom followed-up to at all, or only the minimum amount. The choicest candidates for blizzards of followups are (a) boneheaded misstatements which everyone and his brother has to rush in and correct; (b) hotheaded flamage which offends a healthy crop of argumentative respondees and pedant scolds; (c) the 'nice' one - reminiscence chatter among various net veterans unexpectedly pleased to read someone praising the IBM 7094 or the 1968 Questar or the Leica R2 or whatever. What does the index tell net readers that they don't already know? If a reader follows the newsgroup in question, he or she has already seen the referred-to discussion and doesn't need to be told about it here; if the indexed discussion is in an unfollowed newsgroup, what is the likelihood that such a user will want to go over and check it out? Even in this last case, what good does the message ID do? And WHAT good does a NO-SUBJECT message ID do? Are readers supposed to say Oh, that looks like a ripsnorting good message ID, I'd better hasten over to comp.hollerith.chaff and hunt for it? Basically the 'most cited' attempt is CLUELESS. It appears to exist primarily for the sake of appearing important. Vowel counts would be about as interesting. -- Knowing when to optimize is ==>/ Tom Neff as important as knowing how. /<== tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET