Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!vax135!ariel!hou5f!hou5e!hou5d!hogpc!houxe!drutx!ihnp4!mhuxl!ulysses!burl!hou3c!Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA From: Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Newsgroups: net.mail.msggroup Subject: Re: redistribution lists --> conferences&magazines&links etc. Message-ID: <611@hou3c.UUCP> Date: Tue, 5-Jun-84 16:29:00 EDT Article-I.D.: hou3c.611 Posted: Tue Jun 5 16:29:00 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 9-Jun-84 08:17:30 EDT Reply-To: Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, Message_Group_at_BRL_mailing_list%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, Me Lines: 56 References: <8406041609.AA15587@HP-VENUS> Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site houxe.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP Message-ID: <57941@QZCOM> Date: Tue, 5-Jun-84 16:29:00 EDT Sender: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist) ssages_to_be_transferred_to_the_Swedish_%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Lines: 39 To: Message_Group_at_BRL_mailing_list%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, "Robert Elton Maas", "Scott L. McGregor" Cc: msggroup@BRL-AOS.ARPA, MCGREGOR@Csnet-Relay.ARPA, Messages_to_be_transferred_to_the_Swedish_%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA In-Reply-To: <8406041609.AA15587@HP-VENUS> In COM we have both ordinary conferences, where all participants can write whatever they want, and write-protected conferences, somewhat similar to what you call magazines. We also have different kinds of "selection conferences" into which selected entries from the normal conferences can be entered. Finally we store the "comment" links between entries into the data base, creating "sub-conferences" consisting of the items which are related directly or indirectly by comment links. There are a number of operations on such sub-conferences, such as scanning or searching in a sub- conference or skipping entries from a sub-conference. Our experience is that the sub-conference facility, or "comment tree" facility, or whathever you prefer to call it, is very much used and important for our users. Thus, we plan to put even more stress on this facility in future developments. Our experience is that the various kinds of write-protected conferences and selection conferences do provide some valuable services to some people, but in general have a problem in that too few entries are sent to them. This may be an economic problem, we have no tools at present for paying editors for such conferences, and this may be neccessary. Note that the concept of "keyword" and the concept of "conference" or "mailing list" is really very similar. Especially so in COM, where the same entry can be sent to several conferences, without forcing members of both conferences to see the entry twice. The idea of sending a note about graphics in Pascal to both the "Pascal" and the "graphics" conference/mailing list, is very similar to the idea of giving the note these two keywords. A difficulty with keywords may be that if you select items by keywords, you will get a somewhat random selection of items when you read them, depending on if someone happened to give the items the keyword you search on. With conferences and mailing lists, on the other hand, you will get a number of interrelated entries, and this is important because often the important information is not in one single item, but in the ideas created by the interrelation of items written by a number of people.