Re: [Pan-users] ANN: Pan for Windows, Beta 5

[Duncan]

On Mon 20 Jan 2003 14:06, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom posted as excerpted below:
> for those of us who have never used a newsreader with scoring (I've only
> used agent and pan extensively), could you enlighten us as to how scoring
> works?

Scoring is basically enhanced filtering.  First, we need to be able to filter 
on any arbitrary header, the entire body, or the entire message (header and 
body).  That's the big thing I miss.  I haven't actually used scoring myself, 
but from what I have read, it basically turns the binary decisions of 
ordinary filters into multi-point scoring systems, so you can base the 
ultimate action on an entire host of factors.  Thus, you could score anything 
containing an interesting keyword +1, anything containing a word normally 
only found in spam -5, authors you like to follow +2, etc.  After all the 
scoring rules are applied, you end up with a final score, that then can be 
used to determine the action to take on the message (anything +3 or above on 
overviews alone, download automatically, anything negative, mark read, 
anything -5 or below, filter out, etc).

IOW, it allows multiple criteria fuzzy logic to be applied, rather than simple 
binary rules.

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