Filtering is the act of taking responsibility for what you read by configuring your newsreader to present only what you want to see. This is a special and expected case of censorship , simply extended to include -you- as the remover of ability from others to communicate to yourself.

There will undoubtedly be articles you will see, whomever you are, that you do not like. Ultimately, however, filtering these articles out is the personal responsibility of every reader of rrap. Imagine a world without N9OGL, KB9RQZ, K4YZ, et. al. You can DO it!


There are many filtering techniques in use by modern newsreaders. Consult your newsreader's documentation for details on any of these methods, if they exist. These methods are (in no particular order):

- The "next message" key

ALL newsreaders can use this method, which is basically to stop reading and move on to the next article. There is a "next" key or button somewhere on your newsreader, and this is one of the first things you should find before beginning to read news.

-Menu Selection

Most newsreaders allow you to select articles presented on a menu. The menu usually contains the author, the subject, and date posted. This information alone, used correctly, can filter most unwanted trash for you if you select only those authors and subjects you are interested in.

-Threading

Some newsreaders "thread" articles, trying to preserve the "tree" of discussion. A thread is simply an article presented with all the articles that replied to the original article, and all the replies to the replies, and so on. Usually discussions happen in threads, which helps to pull the discussion out of the other articles so you can focus on it.

-Killfiles

Some newsreaders have a "killfile", which is essentially a list of authors you never want to see postings from. This solves the problem of an over-prolific poster whom you are tired of seeing.

-Scoring

Some newsreaders, mostly UNIX based readers, have a feature called "scoring" which attempts to assign a numeric score to each and every article based on patterns in the headers or body. This is a very useful feature, as you can rate (say) the authors numerically (including negative numbers) and have your favorites show at the top.

The best way to use scoring is to define a "threshold" score such that articles below the threshold are silently ignored. Then it becomes easier to rate authors and subjects to maximal effect. Assigning a -100 value to all the slimer authors, or any author with _friend_ or _OGL_ contained in their adee will automatically remove 97% of the putrification from your newsreader inbox.

The Man in the Maze
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