[comp.groupware] Should I say "Hear hear" ?

emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) (03/15/90)

In article <2830@castle.ed.ac.uk> aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul D. Crowley) writes:

   I often read articles which I feel make a very intelligent point and
   immeadiately reach for the f key to say "Hear hear, this man is
   absolutely right - listen to him". Or sometimes "Yeah, I'd like an
   answer to that one too."  

   The ideal solution would be an addition to the news software which says
   "A,B, and C all said "Hear, hear!" to this article".

The traditional "back-channel" for news is mail -- write something to
the author expressing your opinion, even a Hear hear is gratifying.
That's useful.  Another way to do it is to mail the article in
question to one of your off-net friends, or send it to an off-net
mailing list -- if you can find the list that's suitable.

A more expensive way of doing this is to collect all of the
great postings over time and re-post them every once in a while
to certain selected newsgroups.  Or squirrel them away in your
favorite spot, either your own private hoard or some place
accessible via a server.  Packaged together, these could be
quite useful (especially if you keep a thematic collection,
or index it heavily, or somehow add value to it.)  I have
the idea I'm doing some of this with comp.archives; a similar
idea might be suitable for a comp.books.reviews or a
comp.books.bibliography group (no they don't exist, just an
idea).

There was talk of a "comp.groupware.f" when comp.groupware got
started, a newsgroup just to hold "followups" to discussions.  It was
rejected.  I think there's room in news to add a back-channel
just for Hear Hear messages, though how exactly to encode the
thing and present it nicely to the user is beyond me.  (Control
messages perhaps?)  But I agree, there is a space for lightweight
acknowlegement of agreement, just how to figure out how to 
get the word out appropriately.

--Ed

Edward Vielmetti, U of Michigan math dept.
emv@math.lsa.umich.edu