List archives & the never ending repeating...

Ron Nossaman RNossaman@KSCABLE.com
Thu, 27 Apr 2000 19:02:22 -0500


>I've had this idea in my head about the archives.  I had wondered if it
>might be a worthwhile project to spend some time with the archives, cutting
>and pasting, and basically doing away with most all of the repeating stuff,
>and also categorizing what's left into a kind of index, dividing it up by
>thread and / or subject, so that when you wanted to read about 'widgets',
>you'd head to the category called 'widgets', and see all of the threads that
>have come about on the subject of 'widgets', and can proceed to the
>voluminous content within almost a decade of expounding if so desired.  (I
>can hear a faint voice saying "dream on...")
--------------------------------
>Brian Trout

This could really be a great thing, but it could also be a minor curse.
Posts often have subject matter crossing two or more topics, each bearing
little to no resemblance to the subject line. They would have to be
multiply indexed by the intent of the text as well as the subject line,
which will be an awful lot of work. Did you ever try to look up something
specific in a software manual when you knew the function you wanted, but
you can't figure how they categorized it in the index? In other words, you
would have to retain a full text word search option as a final resort to
cover the inevitable holes in the categorical index. They would also need
to be indexed sequentially to be stepped through as they occurred, as need
be, to find that comment you thought you remembered being about here. in
other other words, the indexing and reorganization should be an addition
to, rather than a replacement of what we have.

Just a thought or two.

Ron N


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