naftoli@aecom.UUCP (Robert Berlinger) (12/06/83)
There seems to be more and more non-jokes in net.jokes and to me
this is very disturbing. I know I am treading on old ground
however I thought of a possible fix. Would it be
possible/desirable to have followups to net.jokes automatically
go to net.jokes.d? This is really what net.jokes.d is for. The
fact that net.jokes.d has been compared to /dev/null in
readership indicates to me that most people simply do not care.
Those people that ocassionally are offended by a joke need not
announce that fact to the world. Sending a nasty reply should do
the trick.
90% of the people I have talked to want to read jokes, nothing
else. And they resent having to skim through 10 flames, and 20
followups (which have no meaning without the original present)
just to read *one* joke!!
Does anyone agree? Has this been proposed before?
Robert Berlinger
{philabs,esquire,cucard}!aecom!naftoliandyb@dartvax.UUCP (Andy Behrens) (12/07/83)
The problem is not only that people are posting non-jokes, but also that most of what purports to be jokes really isn't funny. Someone should change the news posting program to detect whether submissions are humorous; those that are would get posted to net.jokes, the others to net.jokes.d. Andy Behrens decvax!dartvax!andyb -- Andy Behrens decvax!dartvax!andyb
johnc@dartvax.UUCP (John Cabell) (12/07/83)
Aside from being very hard to create, I think that having a
routine to see if a joke is humorous is intriguing. However,
the problem is that some peoples humor is others .......
Anyway, It would be good to route followups to net.jokes.d
From the Ever-Questioning Mind of
johnc
:->tlh@akgua.UUCP (t.l. harris ) (12/08/83)
Who do you recommend as the author of the "define humor"
subroutine which would say that joke "A" is funny, but
joke "B" is either not funny or is a comment?
Some of the jokes in .jokes are not! yet, some are very
funny. I, for one, would not care for the responsibility
of editing for everybody on the net. I have a hard enough
time editing for myself...
9 Some of the jokes in .jokes are not(!) yet, some are very
From the Pond of the Phrog
!akgua!tlhrigney@uokvax.UUCP (12/11/83)
#R:aecom:-29000:uokvax:4100001:000:296 uokvax!rigney Dec 9 15:39:00 1983 However, sometimes one joke will start a flood of similar jokes in the followups. Which is not to say that said flood is a good thing, but it's probably not too good an idea to inundate net.jokes.d with jokes. "Of course I read net.jokes.d, doesn't everyone?" Carl ..!ctvax!uokvax!rigney
andree@uokvax.UUCP (12/11/83)
#R:aecom:-29000:uokvax:4100002:000:4276
uokvax!andree Dec 10 00:02:00 1983
After seeing the comments about fixing news to throw away non-funny
jokes in net.jokes, I decided that the filter needs to be on the
receiving end, not the sending end. I immediately made a sweeping
generalization, which resulted in the following proposal:
1) Fix news to run all messages through a user-specified filter, receiving
zero or more messages from the other end that are then run through
the standard interface. Zero messages implies this one was thrown
away, more than one implies that the tool in question de-digested
an ARPANet digest. Notes: news should allow arbitrary pipes for
the filter; a similar hack in mail (or Mail) would also be useful.
2) A new tool for use with mail/news. Tentative manual page follows.
NAME
badmail - filter mail or news articles that the user doesn't
wish to see.
SYNOPSIS
badmail [-r] [-c command] [file]
DESCRIPTION
badmail is used to filter news or mail files. It expects
one or more letters on standard in, and selectively
copies or does not copy the letters to standard out.
It's argument is either a file name, or a command (with
the -c option). The command consists of a valid line from
the file, and should probably be quoted to avoid bad side
effects with the shell.
The file consists of one or more lines. Each line specifies
a condition that a letter can meet. If the letter meets this
condition, it is instantly discarded. Optionally, a `^' can
precede the condition, which causes the letter to be instantly
passed to standard output should it satisfy the condition. Should
a letter reach the end of the file, it is normally passed to
standard output. The -r flag causes such letters to be discarded
instead.
Valid command lines are:
f site!name true if the letter is from site!name
site! implies any user at site
name implies local user
a site!name same as f
s string true if string is in the subject line
t string true if string is in the text of the
letter
< number true if letter has fewer than number
lines
> number true if the letter has greater than
number lines
! cond true if following condition is false
* always true
^ cond causes the letter to be accepted
instead of rejected if the condition
is true.
EXAMPLES
badmail -r -c "^f ea!mwm" # read all mail from ea!mwm only
badmail -c "!f ea!mwm" # again, read all mail from ea!mwm
badmail -c "f ea!mwm" # read all mail NOT from ea!mwm
An example file might be
< 1 # filter out null mail
^< 20 # I'll look at anything less than a page long
f klonquest # throw out mail from a local user
f rlgvax!joe # and from rlgvax!joe
^f rlgvax! # accept all other mail from rlgvax
^s rot # I like dirty jokes (hehehe)
t lightbulb # but no more lightbulb jokes!
s long-names # or anything else on long names!
^f ihxyzzy!jane # accept mail from ihxyzzy!jane
!f ucbvax! # now, throw out anything not from ucbvax
Note that this example is a hodge-podge of things that would
go in various files; you probably wouldn't use it in a real
file. It just illustrates some of the techniques you can use.
An important consideration is that `!' and `^' are NOT the same
thing. A condition by itself causes anything that meets the
condition to be thrown out; everything else is passed on for
further consideration. That same condition preceded by `^!'
causes anything that meets the condition to be passed on for
further consideration; everything else is thrown out.
BUGS
It really should allow multiple conditions on a line, so you
can specify `anything from so&so and > 100 lines gets thrown out.'
----------
Note: This looks like something both easy and usefull. I'd do it myself,
except we run notes, and I don't have access to the source.
<mike
Flash: One of the people who looked at this before it got posted
(uokvax!emjej) pointed out that this is germane to the current search
for a better news interface. My proposition then changes to:
Add an extra line to stuff from news (the current equivalent of
groups: micro, micro.pc, rec, etc); and modify `badmail' to know
about that line. News then just asks about distribution, and everybody
in the distribution area (who listens to news) would see it. Needs work,
but...