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From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Keyword based news
Message-ID: <3189@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 29-Sep-85 01:54:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: nsc.3189
Posted: Sun Sep 29 01:54:59 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Sep-85 01:21:52 EDT
References: <16460@watmath.UUCP> <1419@utcsri.UUCP> <132@mck-csc.UUCP>
Reply-To: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Organization: Ninja Ewok Training Grounds
Lines: 40

In article <132@mck-csc.UUCP> bmg@mck-csc.UUCP (Bernard M. Gunther) writes:
>> I also am coming to believe a keyword based system is correct. 
>
>I have been hearing about people wanting a keyword based system and I would
>like everyone who advocates this to try a little experiment.  Today, write
>out a list of all the articles which you would like to read in TOMORROWS
>newspaper.  Just try it and you will see why I advocate newsgroups.  

Going to the keyword list allows you to define a list of all the things you
DON'T want to read, which is a very different proposition. For instance, I
can easily drop out classified, the sports section (except possibly for
browsing) and anything having to do with religion. Being able to build
exclusions lists is quite simple -- every time you find something you don't
want to read, you add it to the exclusion list. You could also set up a
'must read' list as well (consider it a clipping service). Also remember
that having a computer around means that you don't need to worry about
reading the things you don't want to read -- if I was going through a paper
manually I'd probably just toss the sports section (unsubscribe to
net.sports) but if I have a computer around I can throw out the car ads,
the basketball, football and baseball stuff and still be able to see the
cricket and bike racing stuff. As it currently stands, I have to wade
through a lot of paper (or messages) because of the problems of the
newsgroups.

Keeping to the newspaper analogy, usenet currently does its first cut using
newsgroups, which translates well to the major newspaper sections (news,
weather, business, sports, opinion). This, unfortunately, creates
ambiguities, since a sports medicine article might go under sports or
medicine, and if it is in sports I'll miss it, but if it is in medicine
I'll read it. Going to the keyword system means that the primary piece of
available information is the subject line, which is analogous to being able
to scan the paper based on the headlines instead. Now, are you more likely
to decide to read an article because of the headline or because of the
section of the paper it is in? For me, at least, the section it is placed
in is a lot less important than what the article is about...
-- 
:From under the bar at Callahan's:   Chuq Von Rospach 
nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA               {decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,pyramid}!nsc!chuqui

If you can't talk below a bellow, you can't talk...