Answer: What is a "labeled" newsgroup?

Paul Foerster:
>... could you please tell me what a "labeled" newgroup is?

a newsgroup where articles are tagged with IDs in the Subject line.

rec.arts.tv.soaps has short IDs for the various soap operas, to make
it easy for anyone to selectively read or ignore threads about
particular soaps.

This is a little different than in rec.arts.ascii, because the IDs
refer to the topic of the article (a particular soap opera), not the
substance of the article (like Question or Answer).  Topic rarely
changes within a thread, but substance often does.  Well, it depends
on the group..

To accomodate newsreaders that thread by Subject, maybe put the IDs at
the end?  Since this is a moderated group and all the articles come
from a single source, you shouldn't get truncated subjects unless your
local news software does the truncation.

I thought I wouldn't like IDs at the end, but I did a trial
reformatting of rec.arts.ascii, and I've decided I don't really care,
as long as the IDs are easy to spot.

Here's a slice of recent subjects, sorted by subject:

D 1693: [ 99:Bob Allison     ] Info: Code to use Figlet within Emacs
D 1695: [  9:Dennis Monbourqu] LINE: New .sig... I like the border <shrug>
D 1699: [331:Mike Jittlov    ] Line: Ascii of Cosmic Cutie....
D 1698: [ 16:Technowonk +p   ] Line: Cheque...please :D
D 1701: [ 10:Edmund Hon      ] Line: Sidewinder
D 1706: [ 16:Grace Atwood (N.] REQUEST: Cats or members of the feline family...
D 1696: [ 17:Bob Allison     ] Re: Talk: Emacs code
D 1704: [ 11:Stefan Gromoll  ] Request: Anyone have a picture of a monkey?
D 1703: [ 18:YourNameHere    ] Request: Sig Help, por favor?
D 1697: [ 26:William         ] Talk: Emacs
D 1700: [ 50:Brian Patrick Le] Talk: Emacs
D 1702: [ 32:Bob Allison     ] Talk: Emacs
D 1705: [ 33:Tim Gray        ] Talk: Emacs
D 1692: [ 43:Grant Severn    ] Talk: GIF->ASCII: Is it Art?
D 1691: [ 15:Bram Cohen      ] Talk: What is Emacs?
D 1694: [ 20:Bjorn Svartengre] Talk: What is Emacs?

Here's the same, using trailing tags:

D 1704: [ 11:Stefan Gromoll  ] Anyone have a picture of a monkey? (REQUEST)
D 1699: [331:Mike Jittlov    ] Ascii of Cosmic Cutie.... (LINE)
D 1706: [ 16:Grace Atwood (N.] Cats or members of the feline family... (REQUEST)
D 1698: [ 16:Technowonk +p   ] Cheque...please :D (LINE)
D 1693: [ 99:Bob Allison     ] Code to use Figlet within Emacs (INFO)
D 1697: [ 26:William         ] Emacs (TALK)
D 1700: [ 50:Brian Patrick Le] Emacs (TALK)
D 1702: [ 32:Bob Allison     ] Emacs (TALK)
D 1705: [ 33:Tim Gray        ] Emacs (TALK)
D 1692: [ 43:Grant Severn    ] GIF->ASCII: Is it Art? (TALK)
D 1695: [  9:Dennis Monbourqu] New .sig... I like the border <shrug> (LINE)
D 1696: [ 17:Bob Allison     ] Re: Emacs code (TALK)
D 1701: [ 10:Edmund Hon      ] Sidewinder (LINE)
D 1703: [ 18:YourNameHere    ] Sig Help, por favor? (REQUEST)
D 1691: [ 15:Bram Cohen      ] What is Emacs? (TALK)
D 1694: [ 20:Bjorn Svartengre] What is Emacs? (TALK)

Here's the same, using leading, fixed-width tags:

D 1693: [ 99:Bob Allison     ] info  Code to use Figlet within Emacs
D 1699: [331:Mike Jittlov    ] line  Ascii of Cosmic Cutie....
D 1698: [ 16:Technowonk +p   ] line  Cheque...please :D
D 1695: [  9:Dennis Monbourqu] line  New .sig... I like the border <shrug>
D 1701: [ 10:Edmund Hon      ] line  Sidewinder
D 1704: [ 11:Stefan Gromoll  ] req   Anyone have a picture of a monkey?
D 1706: [ 16:Grace Atwood (N.] req   Cats or members of the feline family...
D 1703: [ 18:YourNameHere    ] req   Sig Help, por favor?
D 1697: [ 26:William         ] talk  Emacs
D 1700: [ 50:Brian Patrick Le] talk  Emacs
D 1702: [ 32:Bob Allison     ] talk  Emacs
D 1705: [ 33:Tim Gray        ] talk  Emacs
D 1692: [ 43:Grant Severn    ] talk  GIF->ASCII: Is it Art?
D 1696: [ 17:Bob Allison     ] talk  Re: Emacs code
D 1691: [ 15:Bram Cohen      ] talk  What is Emacs?
D 1694: [ 20:Bjorn Svartengre] talk  What is Emacs?

Fixed-width tags are nice, but they don't work if your newsreader uses
a proportional font.  Well, it doesn't look so bad if you set it off
with parentheses..

D 1693: [ 99:Bob Allison     ] (info) Code to use Figlet within Emacs
D 1699: [331:Mike Jittlov    ] (line) Ascii of Cosmic Cutie....
D 1698: [ 16:Technowonk +p   ] (line) Cheque...please :D
D 1695: [  9:Dennis Monbourqu] (line) New .sig... I like the border <shrug>
D 1701: [ 10:Edmund Hon      ] (line) Sidewinder
D 1704: [ 11:Stefan Gromoll  ] (req ) Anyone have a picture of a monkey?
D 1706: [ 16:Grace Atwood (N.] (req ) Cats or members of the feline family...
D 1703: [ 18:YourNameHere    ] (req ) Sig Help, por favor?
D 1697: [ 26:William         ] (talk) Emacs
D 1700: [ 50:Brian Patrick Le] (talk) Emacs
D 1702: [ 32:Bob Allison     ] (talk) Emacs
D 1705: [ 33:Tim Gray        ] (talk) Emacs
D 1692: [ 43:Grant Severn    ] (talk) GIF->ASCII: Is it Art?
D 1696: [ 17:Bob Allison     ] (talk) Re: Emacs code
D 1691: [ 15:Bram Cohen      ] (talk) What is Emacs?
D 1694: [ 20:Bjorn Svartengre] (talk) What is Emacs?

Hmm.  Count me as a vote for fixed-width, leading tags.  But it's not
really that important to me.  (which is why I spent all this time
playing with it :)
--

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