B5JMS news

[B5JMS Poster]

This is a message from the maintainer of B5JMS.

I have two news items to report:

(1) I've written a FAQ list for B5JMS.  It will be posted on this list once
a month, starting this weekend.  The FAQ is just like any other FAQ,
intended to cover the basics of the list, so that the maintainer does not
have to repeat the same answer too many times... :-) Let me know if you have
any comments on the FAQL.

(2) I've completed the testing of my updated script.  If you recall a while
back there was a very long thread with the subject "If you had one question
to ask JMS, what would it be".  JMS had participated in that thread several
times, resulting in the complete thread being resent to B5JMS each time,
repeating most of the discussion, and only adding 1-2 new messages.  My new
script does not repeat any of the unnecessary discussion.  The new, slightly
different format of the output from the script is listed in Question 6 of
the FAQL, reproduced below for convenience.

You will begin seeing the new format as of Friday night.  Let me know if you
have any comments on it.

B5JMS Poster.
Maintainer, B5JMS and B5JMS-DIGEST lists.
<b5jms-owner at majordomo.cs.columbia.edu>

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*Q6 What is the structure of USENET posts to B5JMS?

Posts which come from USENET that I've collected using my scripts have a
definite and recognizable structure.  It was designed to be as terse as
possible yet not miss any vital information.  Here is an example:

 Subject: Re: What Do the Shadows want?
 -----+-------------+--------------------------------------------------
  No. | DATE        |  FROM
 -----+-------------+--------------------------------------------------
 s  1: Aug 19, 1996: Steve A. Ustin <super at dom.ain.org>
 -  9: Aug 20, 1996: Martha S. Vineyard <mvine at li.net>
 - 10: Aug 20, 1996: Joe M. Straczynski <jmsatb5 at aol.com>
 + 22: Aug 22, 1996: davegl at netcom.com (David G. O'Lite)
 * 23: Aug 22, 1996: Joe M. Straczynski <jmsatb5 at aol.com>

The above is just the top of the message.  After that you will get a
printing of all the messages which are not marked with a '-' in the first
column of the listing above.  The actual messages include the "From:" field,
the number of lines in each, and then the message itself.  Each mini-message
in a B5JMS message thread is separated by a one-line string of alternating
'-' and '=' symbols.

The header part above means the following:

- the subject of the thread is "What do the Shadows Want?"

- there were 23 messages in that thread.

- Out of 23 messages in the thread, only five of them were selected as
important to the thread.  These include the first message in the thread, all
of JMS' messages, and the messages immediately preceding JMS'.  All other
messages are ignored, but since I actually print the index numbers according
to the thread, you can tell roughly how large is that thread.  In the above
example, there were 11 messages not listed or included between JMS' first
message on the thread and his second.

- the first (start) message is always included, and is marked with an 's' if
it came from a regular user or an upper-case 'S' if it came from JMS.  The
first message is always included because it is the most likely one that
started the thread and best describes what the thread is all about.

- Each message from JMS which is actually included is marked with a '*'.

- Each message preceding JMS' message is also included.  It is very likely
that the message right before JMS' is the one he is replying to, and if not,
it is almost always on topic, and further help to explain the subject of
the thread and JMS' own reply.  Such messages are marked with a '+'.

- Messages which have been seen before in the same thread (because JMS had
replied to them more than once) are marked with a '-' and are not repeated.
Only the authors of these messages are mentioned in the top listing.  This
saves on repeating old messages, and is especially useful when JMS
participates multiple times in a long thread.

- All other messages are not listed or included because they take too much
space and add very little to the thread itself.  Remember that the purpose
of B5JMS is to show only messages from JMS with context, not whole
discussions.  If you want the latter, I suggest you subscribe to the rastb5m
newsgroup.

==============================================================================
-***
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-*** elsewhere, adjust the "To" field.  The best way to reach JMS is to post
-*** to rastb5m, which can be done by sending email to <rastb5 at solon.com>.