Path: utzoo!utstat!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!intercon!news
From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Dynamic "smart" expiration?
Message-ID: <1677@intercon.com>
Date: 3 Jan 90 20:19:06 GMT
References: <1989Dec27.033817.9953@smsc.sony.com> <1989Dec28.063932.13720@robohack.UUCP> <68634@looking.on.ca> <1989Dec29.213539.2801@utzoo.uucp> <6118@yunexus.UUCP> <69448@looking.on.ca> <1120@utoday.UUCP> <`QF52&@rpi.edu> <69654@looking.on.ca> <89Dec31.171430es <BR
Sender: news@intercon.com
Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
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In article <NVHHF|@b-tech.uucp>, zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff)
writes:
> It's not to hard to 
> determine that if an article has been around for many days and the 
> access_time = mod_time then it's likely that no one is reading the 
> group.

Now that's a nice idea.  I like it.  Since every news reader, whether local
or NNTP, has to actually read the article file at some point, this shouldn't
either break existing readers or be broken in turn by news ones.  Of course,
you only get a "read/not read" result, not a measure of how popular a group
is, but then again expiration policy should not necessarily be tied directly
to popularity.

Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation
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