cni-directories: Re: Information overload
Re: Information overload
Tony_Barry@ANU.EDU.AU
Fri, 7 Feb 1992 08:36:07 +1000
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1992 08:36:07 +1000
From: Tony_Barry@ANU.EDU.AU
Subject: Re: Information overload
As a user of LISTSERVs and usenet I offer the following to Bill Drew's
comments -
>I donot agree with Ed at all!! The quality of discussion on this list
>is very good without a lot of extra garbage.
I would have though about average - but very superior on policy material.
> I do not have access to
>usenet as is with many other librarians. I have tried news readers on
>various internet bulletin boards and find them arcane, clumsy, and not
>user friendly.
Depends which one you use. Like any software It takes getting used to. I
find LISTSERV retrieval language clumsy. Not that archives of usenet group
are much better. Ftp the file back and use grep or awk to find the good
stuff ... shudder! I put mine into hypercard to get full boolean.
>
>Why should I have to sift through over possibly a
>thousand news groups to decide which ones I want to subscribe to?
There about 1500 usenet groups and (I think) about the same number of
LISTSERV groups. You can search for either in LIST of LISTS or ACADLIST.
Fortunately there is a WAIS server which gives keyword searching for
either.
>That is what happens if you access news on some internet bbs's using
>the rn(?) news reader. The full screen ones are not much better.
You should import in somebody's completed .newsrc file and then adapt it by
adding or removing groups rather than starting off from scratch or use a
really powerful newsreader like newsWatcher on a Mac - but use a Mac II at
least!
>
>The naming structure of news groups is difficult to understand and illogical.
>At least when I subscribe to a listserver I can get a description of
>it relatvely easily.
One is classified and the other is not. A bit like call numbers really.
It's all just marking and parking.
Regards from down under
Tony
+-----------------------+-------------------------+--------------------+
| Tony Barry | Library |Phone +61 6 249 4632|
| Head |Australian National Univ.|Fax +61 6 249 0734|
|Computing & Networking | GPO Box 4 Canberra City |Telex 10717252 |
|Tony_Barry@anu.edu.au | A.C.T. 2601 |ILANET MLN207550 |
|tony@library.anu.edu.au| AUSTRALIA |<<<<<<<<<-->>>>>>>>>|
+=======================+=========================+====================+
![[CNI Home Page]](/Images/home.gif)
|
