Re: [ga] The noise is not reaching me...

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2000 at 11:44:56PM -0600, John B. Reynolds wrote:
> 
> 
> Kent Crispin wrote:
> > Moreover, the first thing anyone interested in this forum will do is go
> > look at the archives, which already are almost useless.  There isn't
> > any way to filter the archives...
> >
> 
> Most list archives, including the one for this list, are supplemented by
> indices which allow one to view the author and title of each message before
> one chooses whether to read it.

I know, John.  That's not real filtering, and it doesn't help that much. 

1) If you are just joining the list for the first time you don't know 
who is worth reading and who isn't, so a list sorted by name isn't much help
2) If you look by author, then you lose threading
3) It takes time to download a large index -- in fact, it takes time to 
*reload* a large index.  Therefore a flood of garbage messages renders 
the index almost useless no matter how it is sorted.


-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain