From: leah@smith.CHI.IL.US (L.A.Z. Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: Newsweeding (was Re: Dawn Scotting's Muffin Recipes)
Summary: Not about food but may help with reading posts
Keywords: Muffins
Date: 18 Dec 92 21:29:12 GMT
Reply-To: leah@smith.UUCP (L.A.Z. Smith)
Organization: R. H. E. Smith Corp., Wheeling, IL

The following is a copy of a periodic posting to misc.writing.  It
really has no direct relevance to food, but I thought it might be useful
for those who are having trouble wading through the muffin recipes (or
the Cool Whip recipes or the chicken wing recipes or whatever r.f.c.
passion they don't happen to like).  Instead of complaining, use your
kill files.

It will help if everyone (as Dawn Scotting has) uses a keyword when
they're posting a lot things on one subject.

Personally, I like the muffins, as I do most of the posts here.  R.f.c.
has the highest signal-to-noise ratio of any group I read.  But it is
getting rather massive.  Here are some suggestions that may help:


MISC.WRITING: NEWSWEEDING
Assuming everybody follows the suggestions for labeling their subject
lines correctly (see the posting, "Welcome to misc.writing"), how does
that help you weed out what you want to read?

Well, there are a few ways.  (Most of what follows is for users of rn; I've
collected a few tips for vn and readnews users, as well, but anyone else
is on his own.  Anyone who has tips and suggestions to add, please send
them along.)

SUBJECT LISTS
In rn, hitting the = key will get you a list of the subjects of all
the articles.  You can find one you want to read, type its number, and
then follow the related discussion by typing [control] n.  Then press =
again to get the list of unread articles again.  This works best if
there are only a few articles you want to read.

Alternatively, you can call up the subject list and get rid of the
articles you don't want to read by junking them.  Say articles 20
through 35 don't interest you.  You would type:

		20-35:j

And they'd be gone.

KILLFILES
A more automated way to get rid of subjects you don't want to read, in
rn, is the killfile.  You can start one by simply typing [shift] K
while looking at an article you want to kill the subject of.  This will
kill all the other articles with the same subject and create a killfile
for you in /usr/<your root directory>/News/misc/writing/KILL.  

Once you have done this, the system will automatically junk
any articles with the same subject any time you begin to read
misc.writing, the same as if you typed k while looking at the article.
To add further subjects to your killfile, just hit [shift] K again.

Using this method to add subjects to your killfile will add COMPLETE
subjects.  For example, suppose you were reading an article with the
subject line:

	SUBJECT: ACADEMIC: Term paper formatting

Typing [shift] K would put a line in your killfile like this:

	/: *ACADEMIC: Term paper formatting

But suppose you didn't want to read ANY articles about academic writing.
Rather than adding them subject by subject to your killfile, edit the
file:  Type [control] k to get into it in edit mode and trim the line so
it reads:

	/ACADEMIC/:j

This will find the word "academic" anywhere it appears in the subject
line.  Killfiles follow Unix regular expression formats.  In general, the
syntax is:

	/pattern to look for/action to take

To be sure you're not killing a subject you may want to look at, 
use the format:

	/ACADEMIC/:=j

The = will cause the subjects of the junked articles to print out on the
screen, where you can note them down and call them up if they interest
you.  The regular expression is case insensitive, so the examples above
would also kill an article with the subject, "FICTION: Novels in an
academic setting" or "TECHNICAL: An academic guide to specifications."

To make the search case sensitive, you can use:

	/ACADEMIC/c:j	or   /ACADEMIC/c:=j 

Other hints: an h before the colon will search the entire header (this
is useful for killing crossposts or articles by particular individuals).
An a before the colon will search entire articles (and will take a LONG
time).

Now suppose you wanted to read ONLY posts about academic writing.  Then
you would put in your killfile the following:

	/ACADEMIC/c:=:M
	/^/:j

This will mark for return all articles with "ACADEMIC" (in all caps) in
the subject line.  Then it will junk everything and exit you from the
newsgroup.  When you go back into the newsgroup all the marked articles
will be there.


VN HINTS
(These are taken from a post in rec.collecting.  I haven't tried them.)

	"Say you are in rec.collecting with your cursor at the
beginning article.  If you are like me, you only care about two or
three subjects.  I also like to read through
the misc. ramblings -- they are fun, too.  Use the small j to run
through the group of articles.  When you come to one you want to read,
hit the small x, this will put a * beside the article, keep doing this
until you have everything you want to read marked with the *.  Next
step is to press Control r -- the program will prompt you with words
like string to search?  Type in an * and hit Return.  Your VN reader
will only present you with the articles you have selected, one by one
in order.  If you make a boo-boo and mark the wrong article simply hit
small x again and it will unmark it.  A capital X will unmark all
articles.  I suppose you know this already but if you do a small k, it
will move the cursor backwards to an article you may have missed
marking the first time.  You do -not- have to unmark to update the
entire page.  It took me awhile to get into the rhythm of the process
but it is second nature now and gets me through the reading in a
fraction of time it used to take.  I hope this works for you as well.
I am sure as hell no computer programmer so I didn't understand KILL
files or any of that stuff, but this works just great for me.  "
 
                        ken@csufres.csufresno.edu (Dorothy)


READNEWS INFO
(Also from rec.collecting and untried by me.)

"If "rn" is not available, or if you like "readnews" better, there is a
function that is similar to the KILL file in "readnews". Instead of KILLing
Articles of a given subject, you read only Article with a given subject(s). 

"For example, on my system, if you read about Stamps and Coins, type:

"	readnews -t STAMP COIN

"Rita sent email to me (thanks Rita) indicating that her system works slightly
different from mine. She would have to type:

"	readnews -n rec.collecting -t STAMP COIN

"This way you would not have to go through all the Articles about the other
subjects.

"The only problem is, if someone doesn't use the standard abbreviation,
then you would miss the Article. That's why I like "rn" better."

			sandra@pyrtech.pyramid.com (Sandra Macika)

Happy newsweeding,

---
L.A.Z. Smith                  leah@smith.chi.il.us