[Pan-users] Re: Customizing scoring defaults

[Duncan]

Paul Johnson posted on Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:00:13 -0700 as excerpted:

> Is it possible to modify how much a watched thread gets bumped?  I'd
> like to score a watched thread up by 100 instead of 9999 so other
> scoring rules on watched threads don't have to go to extremes to take
> effect.

Well, yes, and no.

It's possible to set whatever scoring you want, per thread, per post, per 
author, per keyword in subject, etc... tho as implemented, scoring can 
only occur on certain headers (basically, the ones normally available in 
overviews, pulled in when pulling overviews/headers, there's no support 
for scoring bodies or whole-message-download-only headers, tho that has 
been a long-standing feature-request bug I myself filed, from before 
scoring when it was only kill and watch, but ranked "bluesky", and since 
I'm not a coder...).

What pan calls "watched" and "ignored" are simply names defined for a 
specifically defined score level, positive and negative, with associated 
specific menu action shortcuts to assigning that specific score.

So you can assign whatever score you want, and if the scoring sum reaches 
the (arbitrary) scoring defined as watched or ignored, well, it qualifies 
as watched or ignored, regardless of whether it was a single scoring 
qualifier that got it there, or the cumulative action of a hundred or a 
thousand different scoring qualifiers.

Thus, you can certainly modify by how much a thread gets bumped, but if it 
doesn't reach the score (arbitrarily) defined as watched or ignored, well, 
it isn't watched or ignored, and if it does, well, it is.  It's just a 
name for that particular level of score, with a couple shortcuts to 
trigger it, nothing more.

So now you need to know how to score a thread, right?  To score a thread 
to something other than watched or ignored, simply add a scoring rule, on 
the second line of the dialog, set "and the article's" REFERENCES, 
CONTAINS, and either take the default or set the appropriate message-id.  
(The default is the message-id for the currently selected message, so 
you'll be scoring any replies to it.  If it's the thread starter, you'll 
therefore be scoring the thread, while if it's a reply in a larger thread, 
you'll be scoring the subthread.  Either way, it's any replies, with 
"replies" based on whether they have the post's message-ID in the 
references header.)  Be sure to set the desired score and any other 
setting as appropriate before hitting the "add" or "add and rescore" 
button! =:^)

But, if the score doesn't reach the level defined by pan as "watched" or 
"ignored", it won't be watched or ignored, simply scored as the score pan 
was directed to score it, so yes, it's possible to adjust the assigned 
score, but no, it's not then defined as watched or ignored, so it's not 
modifying by how much a post/thread defined as watched (or ignored) gets 
bumped, because watched or ignored is defined to be a specific score, and 
if that's not reached, well, it's not watched or ignored, simply scored.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman