🚀 go-pugleaf

Net News Filter (netnews@DB.Stanford.EDU) wrote:
: 	       Stanford Netnews Filtering Service Info

: 		  Tak W. Yan (tyan@cs.stanford.edu)
:                     Department of Computer Science
:                          Stanford University
:                    
: 			    September 1994


: ( A )  W H O   A R E   W E

The people!

: As part of the Electronic Library project at Stanford. we are providing a 
: filtering service for USENET News (Netnews) articles. A user sends his 
: profiles to the service, and will receive news articles relevant to his 
: interests periodically. Communication to and from the service is via email 
: messages. (A WWW interface for accessing the server is available at 
: http://sift.stanford.edu.) It is an experiment on large-scale information 
: filtering/dissemination. Please feel free to send suggestions, comments, or 
: bug reports to tyan@cs.stanford.edu. 


: ( B )  W H A T   I S   N E T N E W S

: Netnews, or USENET News, is a bulletin board system on the Internet. It is
: organized into discussion groups (called newsgroups) covering a wide variety of
: topics, e.g., from robotics to video game tips, from food recipes to politics.
: Its total readership is in millions and daily traffic in tens of MBs. One 
: problem with Netnews is the volume and diversity of information. Our filtering
: service allows the user to express her interests in finer granularity (using 
: profiles) than newsgroups, and hopefully can provide a better match of 
: interests. 


: ( C )  A   S I M P L E   E X A M P L E

: First we describe a simple example to show how the service works. We then talk
: about how to pick a good profile. 

: ( C . 1 )  E x a m p l e

: Suppose a user subscribes to the service with these settings via the email 
: interface (a WWW interface is also available at http://sift.stanford.edu): 

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: subscribe online information services
: period 5
: end
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: She will first receive an acknowledgement message from netnews, specifying
: the email address the subscription is associated with. The user should keep
: a record of this information, as she may need it in the future to remove
: herself from the service.
:  
: After the subscription is successfully submitted, the user will receive email 
: messages like this every 5 days: 

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: From netnews@db.stanford.edu Mon Jan 24 10:40:35 1994
: To: joe@cs.oceanview.edu
: Subject: Netnews - online information services

:  Subscription 1: online information services

:  Article: misc.activism.progressive.11965
:  From: hn0003@handsnet.org
:  Subject: HandsNet WEEKLY DIGEST 1/15-21
:  Score: 100
:  First 20 lines:
:   HANDSNET WEEKLY DIGEST  January 15 - 21, 1994
:   News from HandsNet's Information Forums
:   HandsNet is a national, nonprofit network connecting organizations working
:   on social and economic justice issues.  Members use HandsNet to make new
:   contacts, work collaboratively and to find and publish information, news
:   ....

:  Article: ca.politics.38420
:  From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin)
:  Subject: GOV-ACCESS #5:Cal.Emergency Svcs.online + Net-fax + MINN Pub Info Net
:  Score: 100
:  First 20 lines:
:   Jan. 22, 1994
:   CALIFORNIA OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES INFO AVAILABLE ONLINE
:     <a recent exchange of messages>
:   The state Emergency Digitial Information Service is working fine
:   Telnet to telnet oes1.oes.ca.gov 5501
:   ....
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: In case an article does not fit in its entirety, the user can request the 
: whole article be sent to her. She does this by sending an email message to 
: netnews@db.stanford.edu with the word get followed by one or more article 
: names in the message body. For example, 

: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you can leave this blank
: get misc.activism.progressive.11965 ca.politics.38420
: end

: To remove individual profiles, the user may use the CANCEL command discussed
: below. To remove all profiles, the user may use the UNSUBSCRIBE command, as
: follows:

: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you can leave this blank
: user joe@cs.oceanview.edu
: unsubscribe
: end

: Here the user needs to specify what email address the profiles are associated
: with, using the USER command. This email address is the one from which the 
: user submits her subscribe requests.

: ( C . 2 )  H o w   t o   P i c k   a   G o o d   P r o f i l e

: As mentioned already, Netnews is a very diverse source of information. To 
: effectively filter the information, the user must be careful in choosing the 
: profile. Say a user is interested in traveling and she submits a profile 
: consisting of just one word "travel." This is too broad a topic and the 
: profile is likely to match many irrelevant articles that just happen to have 
: an occurrence of the word. If she describes her interests in more details, 
: such as travel hawaii, the results will be far better. 

: The service supports two kinds of profile: boolean and weighted. The default 
: mode is boolean. In this mode, you specify words that must appear in articles 
: received. For example, the profile "travel hawaii" in the boolean mode matches
: articles that contain both words "travel" and "hawaii." The number of 
: occurrences of the words is not considered. In the boolean mode, you can also
: use the "not" operator to screen out articles. For example, say a user is 
: interested in underwater fishing but does not want to receive anything from 
: the alt.* newsgroups. She can send the profile "underwater fishing not alt."

: The weighted mode provides some kind of "similarity" matching. You specify a 
: number of words; for each article, a score is computed based on the number of 
: occurrences of these words in the article. An article with a score higher than
: a certain threshold is returned.

: In the weighted mode, it is important to set the threshold appropriately. A 
: good way to pick the appropriate threshold is to use the test run (for WWW) or
: search (for email) function. This will perform a search over the previous 
: day's news articles, and by looking at the scores of the articles returned, 
: you can decide what is the minimum score for an article to be relevant. A 
: basic rule of thumb is that if you set a high threshold (say 90), then only 
: articles that contain most of the words in the profile will be returned. And 
: if set a low threshold (say 10), then articles that match any of the words in 
: the profile will be returned. The default threshold is set to 60.


: ( D )  U S E R  M E S S A G E  F O R M A T

: User messages should be sent to netnews@db.stanford.edu. The subject field of
: the message is ignored. Each message is a request to the service. Each
: request consists of a number of commands. Each command must start with a new
: line with no leading spaces. Continuation lines begin with a space or a tab.
: All commands are case-insensitive. 

: Requests are associated with the return address of the user message. Service
: replies and deliveries will be sent to that address. 

: The usages of the commands are as follows.

: ( D . 1 )  S u b s c r i b i n g

: To subscribe for articles, use these commands:

: SUBSCRIBE word word ...        Subscribe for articles relevant to the profile
:                                specified by <word>'s. Two types of profiles 
:                                are supported: weighted and boolean. For 
:                                boolean profiles, you first specify words that
:                                must all appear in a matching article, and then
:                                words that must not be in, separated by the word
:                                "not." For example,

:                                    subscribe food recipe not fish

:                                You may also skip the "not" portion, e.g.,

:                                    subscribe world cup soccer
:   
:                                For weighted profiles, just type in some plain 
:                                text that describes your interest, such as:

:                                    subscribe nba golden state warriors

:                                News articles will be given score based on the
:                                number of occurrences of the profile words and
:                                articles whose scores are higher than the
:                                threshold (see below) will be returned to you.
:                                
:                                The SUBSCRIBE command may be optionally 
:                                followed by TYPE, LINES, PERIOD, EXPIRE, and 
:                                THRESHOLD commands.

: TYPE type                      (Optional - default boolean) Specify <type>
:                                 as the type of the profile. <type> must be
:                                 either the string "weighted" or "boolean." 

: LINES lines                    (Optional - default 20 lines) Specify the 
:                                number of lines from the beginning of an 
:                                article to be included in the news articles 
:                                abstract sent to you. <lines> must be an 
:                                integer from 1 to 60.
:  
: PERIOD period                  (Optional - default 1 day) Specify <period> 
:                                as the period between notifications (in days).

: EXPIRE days                    (Optional - default 9999 days) Specify 
:                                <days> as the length (in days) for which
:                                the subscription is valid.

: THRESHOLD score                (Optional - default 60) Only applicable for
:                                weighted profiles. Specify <score> as the
:                                minimum score for an article to be relevant. 
:                                The most relevant article is given a score of 
:                                100. <score> must an integer between 1 to 100.

: For example, to request a subscription for articles related to "food recipe" 
: but not "fish," that is valid for 200 days and gives 10 lines in the news 
: article excerpts, send this: 

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: subscribe food recipe not fish
: lines 10
: expire 200
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: The service will acknowledge your subscription, returning a subscription
: identifier (sid). 

: ( D . 2 )  G e t t i n g   A r t i c l e s

: After receiving notifications of articles that may be relevant to your
: interests, you may decide to see an article in its entirety. You can get the
: whole article with the GET command:

: GET article article ...        Get the articles specified (by their article 
:                                ids).

: For example, 

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject:
: get news.announce.conferences.3670
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: ( D . 3 )  R e l e v a n c e   F e e d b a c k

: After reading the articles, you may find some that you like. You can provide
: feedback using these commands:

: FEEDBACK sid                   Provide feedback to subscription <sid>.

: LIKE article article ...       Specify relevant article(s) by their ids.

: For example, this message says that article news.announce.conferences.3670 is
: relevant to subscription 1:

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: feedback 1
: like news.announce.conferences.3670
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: With feedback information, the service may be able to better match future
: articles against your subscriptions. 

: ( D . 4 )  M a n a g i n g   S u b s c r i p t i o n s

: You can manage your subscriptions with these commands: 

: UPDATE sid                     Update subscription with id <sid>. Must be 
:                                followed by one or more of PERIOD, EXPIRE, 
:                                THRESHOLD, LINES, TYPE (see D.1.), or PROFILE 
:                                commands to specify the parameter(s) to be 
:                                updated.

: PROFILE word word ...          Specify the new profile for the UPDATE command.

: CANCEL sid                     Cancel subscription <sid>.

: LIST                           List all your subscriptions.

: For example, to update the period and the threshold of a subscription: 
:       
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: update 3
: period 1
: threshold 60
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: ( D . 5 )  S e a r c h   F o r   P a s t   A r t i c l e s
:   
: Besides providing the subscription service, the service also allows you to
: search for recent articles that are already in the database:

: SEARCH word word ...           Do a search of the database with the given
:                                query. Maybe optionally followed by a THRESHOLD
:                                command to specify the minimum score for an 
:                                article to be retrieved.

: For example, to search for articles related to "information filtering":

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: search information filtering
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: ( D . 6 )  U n s u b s c r i b i n g

: To remove all profiles, the user may use the USER and UNSUBSCRIBE command:

: USER address                   Specify the email address with which the 
:                                profiles are associated. 

: UNSUBSCRIBE                    Delete all profiles for the specified email
:                                address.

: For example,

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you can leave this blank
: user joe@cs.oceanview.edu
: unsubscribe
: end
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: ( D . 6 )  O t h e r   C o m m a n d s

: END                            End the request message. Useful for
:                                preventing the processing of signatures. 
:  
: HELP                           Get help information on server.


: ( E )  F r e q u e n t l y   A s k e d   Q u e s t i o n s

: (1) Is the service free?
:     Yes, it's absolutely FREE!

: (2) How do I access the service?
:     Email access: send message to netnews@db.stanford.edu, with word "help"
:                   in message body
:     WWW access: URL http://sift.stanford.edu

: (3) Is there any similar service you know of?
:     There is a companion service at elib@cs.stanford.edu for filtering
:     computer science technical reports. A search server is also available
:     at URL http://elib.stanford.edu.

: (4) Can I tell my friends about the service?
:     Yes, please do. The server should still be able to handle more 
:     subscriptions :-) The current number of subscriptions is 9800+.

: (5) How to prevent the processing of "signatures" at the end of 
:     email requests? 
:     I have added a new command "end." You can include the word "end"
:     on a line by itself at the end of the request message (before
:     the signature). (Also see D.6 above.)

: (9) Any papers written on the server?
:     A paper is available by anonymous ftp at ftp://db.stanford.edu/sift/sift.ps
:     Some related papers on information filtering available at 
:     ftp://db.stanford.edu/pub/yan
:     
: (10)What newsgroups are covered?
:                     calstate        gnu             out.going       tx
:     adass           can             ieee            phl             u3b
:                     chi             in.coming       rec             ucb
:     alt                             info            sci             uiuc
:     atl             comp            junk            scruz           uk
:     aus             control         misc            soc             vmsnet
:     ba                              ne                              za
:     bionet          ee              news            talk
:     bit             fj              no              test
:     biz             fl              nz              trial
:     ca              general         ont             triangle



: 	       Stanford Netnews Filtering Service Info

: 		  Tak W. Yan (tyan@cs.stanford.edu)
:                     Department of Computer Science
:                          Stanford University
:                    
: 			    September 1994


: ( A )  W H O   A R E   W E

: As part of the Electronic Library project at Stanford. we are providing a 
: filtering service for USENET News (Netnews) articles. A user sends his 
: profiles to the service, and will receive news articles relevant to his 
: interests periodically. Communication to and from the service is via email 
: messages. (A WWW interface for accessing the server is available at 
: http://sift.stanford.edu.) It is an experiment on large-scale information 
: filtering/dissemination. Please feel free to send suggestions, comments, or 
: bug reports to tyan@cs.stanford.edu. 


: ( B )  W H A T   I S   N E T N E W S

: Netnews, or USENET News, is a bulletin board system on the Internet. It is
: organized into discussion groups (called newsgroups) covering a wide variety of
: topics, e.g., from robotics to video game tips, from food recipes to politics.
: Its total readership is in millions and daily traffic in tens of MBs. One 
: problem with Netnews is the volume and diversity of information. Our filtering
: service allows the user to express her interests in finer granularity (using 
: profiles) than newsgroups, and hopefully can provide a better match of 
: interests. 


: ( C )  A   S I M P L E   E X A M P L E

: First we describe a simple example to show how the service works. We then talk
: about how to pick a good profile. 

: ( C . 1 )  E x a m p l e

: Suppose a user subscribes to the service with these settings via the email 
: interface (a WWW interface is also available at http://sift.stanford.edu): 

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: subscribe online information services
: period 5
: end
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: She will first receive an acknowledgement message from netnews, specifying
: the email address the subscription is associated with. The user should keep
: a record of this information, as she may need it in the future to remove
: herself from the service.
:  
: After the subscription is successfully submitted, the user will receive email 
: messages like this every 5 days: 

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: From netnews@db.stanford.edu Mon Jan 24 10:40:35 1994
: To: joe@cs.oceanview.edu
: Subject: Netnews - online information services

:  Subscription 1: online information services

:  Article: misc.activism.progressive.11965
:  From: hn0003@handsnet.org
:  Subject: HandsNet WEEKLY DIGEST 1/15-21
:  Score: 100
:  First 20 lines:
:   HANDSNET WEEKLY DIGEST  January 15 - 21, 1994
:   News from HandsNet's Information Forums
:   HandsNet is a national, nonprofit network connecting organizations working
:   on social and economic justice issues.  Members use HandsNet to make new
:   contacts, work collaboratively and to find and publish information, news
:   ....

:  Article: ca.politics.38420
:  From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin)
:  Subject: GOV-ACCESS #5:Cal.Emergency Svcs.online + Net-fax + MINN Pub Info Net
:  Score: 100
:  First 20 lines:
:   Jan. 22, 1994
:   CALIFORNIA OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES INFO AVAILABLE ONLINE
:     <a recent exchange of messages>
:   The state Emergency Digitial Information Service is working fine
:   Telnet to telnet oes1.oes.ca.gov 5501
:   ....
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: In case an article does not fit in its entirety, the user can request the 
: whole article be sent to her. She does this by sending an email message to 
: netnews@db.stanford.edu with the word get followed by one or more article 
: names in the message body. For example, 

: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you can leave this blank
: get misc.activism.progressive.11965 ca.politics.38420
: end

: To remove individual profiles, the user may use the CANCEL command discussed
: below. To remove all profiles, the user may use the UNSUBSCRIBE command, as
: follows:

: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you can leave this blank
: user joe@cs.oceanview.edu
: unsubscribe
: end

: Here the user needs to specify what email address the profiles are associated
: with, using the USER command. This email address is the one from which the 
: user submits her subscribe requests.

: ( C . 2 )  H o w   t o   P i c k   a   G o o d   P r o f i l e

: As mentioned already, Netnews is a very diverse source of information. To 
: effectively filter the information, the user must be careful in choosing the 
: profile. Say a user is interested in traveling and she submits a profile 
: consisting of just one word "travel." This is too broad a topic and the 
: profile is likely to match many irrelevant articles that just happen to have 
: an occurrence of the word. If she describes her interests in more details, 
: such as travel hawaii, the results will be far better. 

: The service supports two kinds of profile: boolean and weighted. The default 
: mode is boolean. In this mode, you specify words that must appear in articles 
: received. For example, the profile "travel hawaii" in the boolean mode matches
: articles that contain both words "travel" and "hawaii." The number of 
: occurrences of the words is not considered. In the boolean mode, you can also
: use the "not" operator to screen out articles. For example, say a user is 
: interested in underwater fishing but does not want to receive anything from 
: the alt.* newsgroups. She can send the profile "underwater fishing not alt."

: The weighted mode provides some kind of "similarity" matching. You specify a 
: number of words; for each article, a score is computed based on the number of 
: occurrences of these words in the article. An article with a score higher than
: a certain threshold is returned.

: In the weighted mode, it is important to set the threshold appropriately. A 
: good way to pick the appropriate threshold is to use the test run (for WWW) or
: search (for email) function. This will perform a search over the previous 
: day's news articles, and by looking at the scores of the articles returned, 
: you can decide what is the minimum score for an article to be relevant. A 
: basic rule of thumb is that if you set a high threshold (say 90), then only 
: articles that contain most of the words in the profile will be returned. And 
: if set a low threshold (say 10), then articles that match any of the words in 
: the profile will be returned. The default threshold is set to 60.


: ( D )  U S E R  M E S S A G E  F O R M A T

: User messages should be sent to netnews@db.stanford.edu. The subject field of
: the message is ignored. Each message is a request to the service. Each
: request consists of a number of commands. Each command must start with a new
: line with no leading spaces. Continuation lines begin with a space or a tab.
: All commands are case-insensitive. 

: Requests are associated with the return address of the user message. Service
: replies and deliveries will be sent to that address. 

: The usages of the commands are as follows.

: ( D . 1 )  S u b s c r i b i n g

: To subscribe for articles, use these commands:

: SUBSCRIBE word word ...        Subscribe for articles relevant to the profile
:                                specified by <word>'s. Two types of profiles 
:                                are supported: weighted and boolean. For 
:                                boolean profiles, you first specify words that
:                                must all appear in a matching article, and then
:                                words that must not be in, separated by the word
:                                "not." For example,

:                                    subscribe food recipe not fish

:                                You may also skip the "not" portion, e.g.,

:                                    subscribe world cup soccer
:   
:                                For weighted profiles, just type in some plain 
:                                text that describes your interest, such as:

:                                    subscribe nba golden state warriors

:                                News articles will be given score based on the
:                                number of occurrences of the profile words and
:                                articles whose scores are higher than the
:                                threshold (see below) will be returned to you.
:                                
:                                The SUBSCRIBE command may be optionally 
:                                followed by TYPE, LINES, PERIOD, EXPIRE, and 
:                                THRESHOLD commands.

: TYPE type                      (Optional - default boolean) Specify <type>
:                                 as the type of the profile. <type> must be
:                                 either the string "weighted" or "boolean." 

: LINES lines                    (Optional - default 20 lines) Specify the 
:                                number of lines from the beginning of an 
:                                article to be included in the news articles 
:                                abstract sent to you. <lines> must be an 
:                                integer from 1 to 60.
:  
: PERIOD period                  (Optional - default 1 day) Specify <period> 
:                                as the period between notifications (in days).

: EXPIRE days                    (Optional - default 9999 days) Specify 
:                                <days> as the length (in days) for which
:                                the subscription is valid.

: THRESHOLD score                (Optional - default 60) Only applicable for
:                                weighted profiles. Specify <score> as the
:                                minimum score for an article to be relevant. 
:                                The most relevant article is given a score of 
:                                100. <score> must an integer between 1 to 100.

: For example, to request a subscription for articles related to "food recipe" 
: but not "fish," that is valid for 200 days and gives 10 lines in the news 
: article excerpts, send this: 

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: subscribe food recipe not fish
: lines 10
: expire 200
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: The service will acknowledge your subscription, returning a subscription
: identifier (sid). 

: ( D . 2 )  G e t t i n g   A r t i c l e s

: After receiving notifications of articles that may be relevant to your
: interests, you may decide to see an article in its entirety. You can get the
: whole article with the GET command:

: GET article article ...        Get the articles specified (by their article 
:                                ids).

: For example, 

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject:
: get news.announce.conferences.3670
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: ( D . 3 )  R e l e v a n c e   F e e d b a c k

: After reading the articles, you may find some that you like. You can provide
: feedback using these commands:

: FEEDBACK sid                   Provide feedback to subscription <sid>.

: LIKE article article ...       Specify relevant article(s) by their ids.

: For example, this message says that article news.announce.conferences.3670 is
: relevant to subscription 1:

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: feedback 1
: like news.announce.conferences.3670
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: With feedback information, the service may be able to better match future
: articles against your subscriptions. 

: ( D . 4 )  M a n a g i n g   S u b s c r i p t i o n s

: You can manage your subscriptions with these commands: 

: UPDATE sid                     Update subscription with id <sid>. Must be 
:                                followed by one or more of PERIOD, EXPIRE, 
:                                THRESHOLD, LINES, TYPE (see D.1.), or PROFILE 
:                                commands to specify the parameter(s) to be 
:                                updated.

: PROFILE word word ...          Specify the new profile for the UPDATE command.

: CANCEL sid                     Cancel subscription <sid>.

: LIST                           List all your subscriptions.

: For example, to update the period and the threshold of a subscription: 
:       
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: update 3
: period 1
: threshold 60
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: ( D . 5 )  S e a r c h   F o r   P a s t   A r t i c l e s
:   
: Besides providing the subscription service, the service also allows you to
: search for recent articles that are already in the database:

: SEARCH word word ...           Do a search of the database with the given
:                                query. Maybe optionally followed by a THRESHOLD
:                                command to specify the minimum score for an 
:                                article to be retrieved.

: For example, to search for articles related to "information filtering":

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you may leave this blank
: search information filtering
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: ( D . 6 )  U n s u b s c r i b i n g

: To remove all profiles, the user may use the USER and UNSUBSCRIBE command:

: USER address                   Specify the email address with which the 
:                                profiles are associated. 

: UNSUBSCRIBE                    Delete all profiles for the specified email
:                                address.

: For example,

: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: mail netnews@db.stanford.edu
: Subject: you can leave this blank
: user joe@cs.oceanview.edu
: unsubscribe
: end
: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

: ( D . 6 )  O t h e r   C o m m a n d s

: END                            End the request message. Useful for
:                                preventing the processing of signatures. 
:  
: HELP                           Get help information on server.


: ( E )  F r e q u e n t l y   A s k e d   Q u e s t i o n s

: (1) Is the service free?
:     Yes, it's absolutely FREE!

: (2) How do I access the service?
:     Email access: send message to netnews@db.stanford.edu, with word "help"
:                   in message body
:     WWW access: URL http://sift.stanford.edu

: (3) Is there any similar service you know of?
:     There is a companion service at elib@cs.stanford.edu for filtering
:     computer science technical reports. A search server is also available
:     at URL http://elib.stanford.edu.

: (4) Can I tell my friends about the service?
:     Yes, please do. The server should still be able to handle more 
:     subscriptions :-) The current number of subscriptions is 9800+.

: (5) How to prevent the processing of "signatures" at the end of 
:     email requests? 
:     I have added a new command "end." You can include the word "end"
:     on a line by itself at the end of the request message (before
:     the signature). (Also see D.6 above.)

: (9) Any papers written on the server?
:     A paper is available by anonymous ftp at ftp://db.stanford.edu/sift/sift.ps
:     Some related papers on information filtering available at 
:     ftp://db.stanford.edu/pub/yan
:     
: (10)What newsgroups are covered?
:                     calstate        gnu             out.going       tx
:     adass           can             ieee            phl             u3b
:                     chi             in.coming       rec             ucb
:     alt                             info            sci             uiuc
:     atl             comp            junk            scruz           uk
:     aus             control         misc            soc             vmsnet
:     ba                              ne                              za
:     bionet          ee              news            talk
:     bit             fj              no              test
:     biz             fl              nz              trial
:     ca              general         ont             triangle



:  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
:  For help information, send email                     NetNews Filtering Server
:  with word 'help' in message body                      netnews@db.stanford.edu
:  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=