From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:ARPAVAX:CAD:teklabs!ogcvax!root Newsgroups: net.news Title: Keywords vs. Newsgroups Article-I.D.: ogcvax.118 Posted: Tue Jun 15 14:53:36 1982 Received: Fri Jun 18 03:03:45 1982 I predict that a keyword system to replace the current newsgroup system would fail miserably. Take a look at the Subject: field of some articles now posted -- some are blank, and many give little clue as to what an article contains. (Incidentally, this is why "just type n" is not a counter to the garbage frequently posted, as some have offered.) If users won't give a useful Subject: field, can they be expected to include useful keywords? I feel that more discipline or control over the creation and use of newsgroups would do much more good than eliminating them. Newsgroups give a mechanism to eliminate traffic between sites of entire categories of garbage, something that would be difficult to do with a keyword system. Bruce Jerrick ...teklabs!ogcvax!bruce Oregon Graduate Center