X-Message-Number: 18783
From:  (William L. Dye)
Subject: An alternative to posting entire news articles on CryoNet
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 23:40:24 CST

In CryoNet post #18763, Peter Christiansen () writes:

> This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate.
> The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:

[131 lines deleted]

Peter,

Thank you for your interest in cryonics, and your willingness to
contribute to the field by forwarding information that seems relevant.
Unfortunately, the size of CryoNet archives can become a significant
impediment in many circumstances.  In my case, none of the articles that
you've forwarded have been of direct interest, though certainly they
were worthwhile for others on the list.

In the interest of brevity, please consider an alternate methodology:
instead of posting a copy of entire articles to CryoNet, post only a
brief description and a hyperlink.  For example, with just a little
editing, your #18762 and #18763 postings could have looked like this:

  [Begin hypthetical posting]
  
  To: 
  From: Peter Christiansen <>
  Subject: LINKS: anthrax cures, "supervaccine" research.
  
  --- Software finds possible anthrax cures.
  
  MSNBC.com: Scientists have used the power of more than a million
  home computers to come up with thousands of compounds that could
  be developed as a cure for anthrax.  
  
  http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_email.asp?/news/691885.asp
  
  --- Searching for a supervaccine
  
  SFGate.com: Scientists turn to primitive side of human immune system
  to develop a single drug to battle an array of biological weapons.
  
  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/03/11/MN159545.DTL
  
  [End of hypothetical posting]

In this example, each link entry has three parts: first, a highlighted
one-line description; second, a one-paragraph summary; and third, a
single HTML link.  Except for the link itself, line length could be
limited to maybe 75 characters.  The topic and signature are essentially
in the headers, so the body of a pure "LINKS:" posting need only have
the three-part link entries.  I guess a standard fourth part could be a
one-paragraph comment by the person who forwarded the link, though we'll
eventually need better ways than that to denote aggregate opinions, etc.

Please don't misunderstand the tone of this request, Peter.  I'm not
upset or trying to shout down your contributions.  I'm very glad that
you care, and very glad you want to help.  I offer this request in the
hope of making such contributions by you and others more effective to a
broader audience.  Indeed, the (rather simplistic) format outlined above
is derived from ideas that have been kicked around long before you
started posting.  Many lists have long had signal-to-noise issues.

The core idea is pretty simple: it's almost always easier to
automatically search through messages when each message sticks to
well-defined standard formats.  Numerous attempts have been made through
the years to develop better systems for wading through data, including
Xanadu, ontologies for the semantic web, and many others.  I remain
hopeful that such systems will eventually become more commonplace than
the mailing list systems we use today.  Perhaps by adopting simple
format standards manually, we can help build momentum towards developing
better systems for group discussion in general, as the technology
develops.  It seems worth a shot anyway, so I hope that you and others
will consider using a format similar to the one above, at least when
forwarding information found on readily-available web sites.

Thanks again for your continuing interest in cryonics,

--willdye

  __________________________________________________________
  William L. Dye - Software Enginerd - willdye @ willdye.com
  So which came first, the rubber chicken or the rubber egg?

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