From: kbibb@maui.qualcomm.com (Ken Bibb)
Newsgroups: news.software.nn
Subject: Re: how to avoid old subjects?
Date: 20 Dec 92 22:05:36 GMT
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA

In <keld.724832813@login.dkuug.dk> keld@login.dkuug.dk (Keld J|rn Simonsen) writes:

>kbibb@maui.qualcomm.com (Ken Bibb) writes:

>>In <keld.724806010@login.dkuug.dk> keld@login.dkuug.dk (Keld J|rn Simonsen) writes:

>>>I have been experimenting with some ideas for nn, which I would
>>>like to hear some comments on.

>>>I have been somewhat tired of seeing the same subjects again
>>>and again, and would be interested in just seeing new
>>>subjects plus the old ones that I cared for.

>>Then kill the subjects that you aren't interested in--though I would recommend
>>only killing them for 30 days or else it will take nn a while to compile
>>the kill file...

>But that is a lot of subjects!
>I cannot kill all of those by hand.

When you use K for kill, it will prompt for a subject.  There is usually
a key word that you can use if you don't want to kill every single subject.

And if you don't want to visually skip a subject, it shouldn't be *that*
hard to skip the threads visually.  I currently subscribe to over 100
newsgroups and can go through a day's worth of news in less than an hour
with nn (mainly because of the high level of noise in each group).

>>>The other idea was to automatically see articles, that were followups
>>>to my own articles, and also to automatically select followup
>>>articles on those I have selected for reading.

>>Have nn automatically select on the subject line of your own msg (for
>>30 days, once again) and it will auto-select the articles.

>>>Is this possible with the current nn?

>>Yes.

>How? I would like to have the selection automatically
>when I have selected it for reading, or when posting a new article.

By doing as I suggested earlier by using the kill function.  nn's Kill
allows auto-selection or auto-killing.

>>>I have planned two new variables:

>>>ignore-re  (boolean, default false)
>>>If set, articles with subjects already seen in a previous
>>>invocation of nn or another newsreader - and not auto-selected -
>>>are automatically killed.

>>Where would it keep the subject lines?  How would it handle the number
>>of possible subject lines?  (128^40 ?)

>The subject lines should not be kept, but this should be done
>by looking if the subject is new (no Re:) or  followup
>to a new article.

Many people do not use the followup capability of their newsreaders, so the
only way of guaranteeing that you've killed the thread is by including the
entire subject line in a special kill file as I've suggested.

>>>auto-select-rw (boolean, default false)
>>>If set, a subject of an article read or posted is automatically 
>>>used for subsequent auto-selecting.

>>Where would it keep the subject lines?  How would it handle the number
>>of possible subject lines?  (128^40 ?)

>in the kill file. I do not read and post that many articles.
>say 500 subjects in a month.

You may not personally post/read that much, but if a feature like this
was to be added to nn, it should be able to handle people like Ron Dippold
too!  

If you do not post many articles, then why do you think it's too hard to
kill-select those subject lines that you post?

-- 
Ken Bibb                "he heard the snow falling faintly through the
kbibb@qualcomm.com	 universe and faintly falling, like the descent of
jester@crash.cts.com     their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
				--"The Dead", James Joyce
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