Re: [Pan-users] Sorting issues - example

[Duncan]

On Thu 12 Dec 2002 11:27, Chris Petersen posted as excerpted below:
> > > (NMR) [01of11] Cathie Ryan - Somewhere...
> > > (NMR) [01of13] Cathie Ryan - Cathie...
> > > (NMR) [02of11] Cathie Ryan - Somewhere...
> > > (NMR) [02of13] Cathie Ryan - Cathie...
> > > (NMR) [03of11] Cathie Ryan - Somewhere...
> > > (NMR) [03of13] Cathie Ryan - Cathie...
> >
> > The articles you refer to are correctly sorted by subject, the last time
> > I looked 1 comes before 3 in an alphanumeric sequence.
>
> hmm, now that you mention it, you are correct.  my bad.  Someone really
> needs to make a standard binary posting subject format so sorting can be
> done properly...  blech. 

In some of the groups I frequent, there's occasionally a reminder of decent 
subject posting order.  The worst is when they put the byte-count before the 
sequence number, or even series name, as that makes it essentially random 
order!

Perhaps a discussion in the group of an accepted subject line ordering is in 
order.  Something like New/RP (if appropriate), Requester (optional), Series 
name, sequence number, filename, split-message sequence (if appropriate), 
file bytecount (optional).  Some groups have a discussion of this in their 
FAQ.

Often, sorting by subject for most stuff, until the only thing that's left is 
mixed up sequences like the above, then sorting by time on those, helps to 
straighten things out.  Of course, you can't sort by time initially, or you 
get subjects all jumbled together if there were several folks posting at the 
same time, but it can often straighten things out when you've saved the files 
you wanted and deleted all the other messages (or simply marked them read and 
reloaded the group, if filtering by read status), so only the problem posts 
remain.  Of course, if you have TWO posters with problem posts, and they 
happened to be posting at the same time, THEN you have a problem!  <g>

Another approach might be creating filters on-the-fly, now that custom filters 
can be applied to the message list again, then engaging them for display, to 
show only the one set, processing it, then disabling/deleting the filter, to 
show the remaining set.  Since the filters do take regex, and you 
specifically mentioned that, it might be a viable solution, although it's 
likely to have to be redone on an individual case basis so is less than an 
optimal solution.

The best solution is still to get posters to use some sort of logical subject 
line ordering.

-- 
Duncan
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --
Benjamin Franklin