lauren@rand-unix.ARPA (02/26/85)
Egads! Talk about a sore spot! I've been flooded with mail from people commenting on how they're starting to ignore much of their mail as the volume has been going up and up! Typical was the person who said (more or less): "This morning my mailbox had 196 messages in it. I read 6 based on the subject lines." This same person expressed a concern that has frequently bothered me, namely that particular subject lines tend to stay in use long after the topic has shifted, making it more and more difficult to make meaningful determinations from the subject lines alone. This can force you to either start reading almost every message (not practical in many cases) or risk missing occasional important messages. There is a key question here--a question that deserves serious discussion--perhaps not in these particular lists but SOMEWHERE. The question: How long can completely unmoderated discussions be supported (in terms of time, disk space, phone charges, etc.) in a rapidly growing network environment? Will anyone be able to handle the flood when (if) millions of people have access to these lists and feel free to send in messages whenever they wish? Let's ignore the issue of message quality--just think of the sheer VOLUME as time goes on and the networks grow. What happens when we get to the point where every time a simple question is asked (probably time and time again), 1 or 2 THOUSAND people politely respond, plus a few hundred flamers? Highly intelligent mail scanning programs (if such can be created and TRUSTED not to throw out important messages) might help save on people-time, but wouldn't address the costs associated with sending so much material around, much of which will be read by few people, or maybe by none. Nor is it clear that such programs are practical in the short run. I'm not convinced that HUMAN-NETS would be the proper place for such a discussion, but it's getting increasingly important that we address these issues soon--before we're all flooded under an unending stream of unmanageable data. More flooded than we are NOW, anyway. --Lauren--