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? Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18783