Re: [vox] modification to the archive

[William Kendrick <nbsMAPS@sonic.net>]

On Sun, Dec 02, 2001 at 11:28:52AM -0800, Ted Deppner wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 02, 2001 at 10:51:23AM -0800, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > so are you saying it's useless to you or you think it's just useless?
> 
> I expect it will be useless in practice, because of the subject line not
> always being properly used.

The other issue is whether people will even know (1) they can use keywords
and (2) how.

As a regular Usenet poster (I've got the spam collection to prove it! :) ),
my news agent actually has a "Keyword" header at the top (along with
"Organization" and a few others).

The /only/ time I've ever bothered filling out the "Keyword" line is when
posting a certain kind of fresh message (eg, not a follow-up)...
LUGOD event announcments.

And even then, I don't always remember (or I have the time/inclination).


As for _how_ usenet posting keywords are even used (if there's some search
facility I'm not seeing in my or other newsreader software, or if sites
like Deja News^W^WDeja^WGoogle Groups use them separately from the posting's
text body), I don't even have a clue.


Pete - I think we all agree the idea is a good one.  I think those of us
who have responded just think it's not worth it, because almost noone will
use it. :^(

(Kinda like IMG ALT tags ;)  Theoretically, browsing the web with Lynx
shouldn't be a problem, but because website designers are either lazy,
don't know, or don't care, it's instead very difficult to browse with Lynx)


> I don't hate it, I just realistically think it won't be as useful as
> hoped.  I also believe some active moderatorship pushing useful subject
> lines [1] may have a greater impact.

Like Ted said.


-bill!
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