avi@pegasus.UUCP (11/03/83)
Here are comments about my third question. Most people were influenced by
Subject and/or Author -- but it is hard to classify many as "yes" or "no".
As usual, some people did not really answer the question, which was:
3 - Does the Subject line or name of the author influence your decision?
- No, usually it is the first paragraph.
- subject/name influence: not really. I'll read most anything.
- Of course, I do base my decision on the author; for example, I'm more
willing to read an article by pmd because -- even though I disagree
with him -- he's generally rational, and his responses are cogent,
well-reasoned, and often researched. Unc!tim, on the other hand....
- Yes. For example, I long ago stopped reading articles from anyone
about unc!tim's unorthodox philosophy, whose name I forget (but would
recognize in a subject line)
- Yes. The Mormonism debate went on for too long, though it was nice
to be able to ignore big infrequent articles rather than wade through
hundreds of tiny articles..
- Yes, these affect me, both positively and negatively. If I am to read
something >100 lines, however, the title/author had better be pretty
impressive.
- Yes. There are some people whose articles I would read no matter how
long they are. The Subject line is only interesting in that there are
some things I am not interested in reading (in general) such as a long
abortion debate. ...
The author is more important than the Subject -- that is to say I would
read an article by Tim Maroney even if it were about abortions.
- Always!
- Yes....I generally do not read articles longer than 150 lines. It
depends on the subject of the article, though..If it is longer, I tend
to dispose of it, but that is once again dependent upon the subject.
Reiterating the above, subject yes. Author no.
- Yes. I will probably still read the article, but I am usually thinking
what a {pretentious, pompous, insensitive, bigoted, narrowminded}
person the author of the artcle is.
- I usually type N to articles if the subject line is a response to an
issue I'm tired of. Else I'll look at at least a screenful. There
are some people whose blatherings I find so attrociously dull that I
will just type n no matter what. On the other hand, I will always
read certain authors.
- Yes.
- Yes.
- You betcha'.
- I will read any article of any length that is certified as being from a
god, goddess, nymph, satyr or elemental. ( Articles from people who
think that they are ( or that everybody is) a god might get read also,
but then again they might not ). The important issue is that I must
know in advance that the article is from a deity before I will commit
myself to reading it :-) ( *-) this is a cyclops with a grin )
- Influences - title and author, ie, whether I think the note will be
interesting and/or edifying.
- Sometimes for subject, rarely for author.
- YES!! Of course it does. Known flamers and messages which duplicate
past discussion get short shrift. Subject lines with 5 or more "re:"s
in them are presumptively the latter. Also, and VERY important for me,
is the quality of the first 1-3 screenfulls of a long message. If it
doesn't wake up by then I conclude that it never will.
- I often skip articles about topics in which I have no interest. I
rarely skip article in net.religion, although I am often weeks behind
in my reading.
- If the title is not really appealing, my cut-off is 17 lines, which
means I can read the article and see the header for the next article.
Editors note: I don't have much to add, and this article is too long already.
I do look at the subject line carefully and have my favorites. I will read
anything with a trb suffix -- whether from floyd or masscomp. I stop reading
articles if the entire first screen is a series of Bible Quotes.
--
-=> Avi E. Gross @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6241
suggested paths: [ihnp4, allegra, cbosg, hogpc, ...]!pegasus!avitim@unc.UUCP (11/05/83)
I was rather surprised to see that someone in Avi Gross's poll had stopped reading any articles about "unc!tim's unusual philosophy", since I haven't seen any articles about it. No, Im not being clever and saying "Those weren't really articles" -- I have not seen any articles on Thelemism except one from Larry Bickford, which I treated the same way he has always treated my articles. (I ignored it.) If someone has copies of these mystery articles, please send them to me, at the unforgettable address below. ________________________________________________________ Tim Maroney, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill duke!unc!tim (USENET), tim.unc@csnet-relay (ARPA)