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From: tower@BU-IT.BU.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Hyper-Usenet
Message-ID: <8712041836.AA09613@bu-it.BU.EDU>
Date: Fri, 4-Dec-87 13:36:54 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-it.8712041836.AA09613
Posted: Fri Dec  4 13:36:54 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Dec-87 19:59:23 EST
References: <16723@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
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In article <16723@bu-cs.BU.EDU> you write:
 > From: john greely 
 > 
 > 
 >   The recent discussion of a hypertext Usenet has stimulated me
 > to submit my own recommendations/ideas for how to accomplish
 > this.  Since I am neither the most experienced programmer on the
 > net, nor the most knowledgeable about hypertext, I am welcome to
 > suggestions/criticisms/flames/snickers.  Here goes...

...

 >     2.  Most sites delete articles a variable number of days
 >         after they arrive, making any references invalid.  One
 >         way to solve this is by scanning each article as it
 >         arrives, checking for references.  Each article
 >         referenced is then "touched" (creation date set to
 >         current date).  Optionally, this can be carried out to a
 >         depth set by the administrator, so that recent threads
 >         will not be deleted as long as there are further
 >         contributions.
 > 

Ray Essick's notes software does something like this now.  Articles
are kept in a chain based (started) with the original article.  The
chain is only deleted when the newest response has aged.  It does save
a lot of quoting, when all the articles are generated using the notes
interface.  Gatewayed USENET netnews has all the old inclusion
problems, and chaining of netnews articles can break down (the
heuristic used isn't perfect).

Note that despite the additional unexpired articles, the disk space
used in a notes installation is less than that used in a Bnews
installation.

enjoy -len