RE: Proposal: Mailing list archive requirement(s)

[Lloyd Wood <L.Wood at surrey.ac.uk>]

On Tue, 27 Jul 1999, Paul Hoffman / IMC wrote:

> At 01:43 PM 7/27/1999 -0700, Dan Kohn wrote:
> >2) The mailing list should have a web-based archive that supports
> >searching and threading.
> 
> I'm fine with threading, but I suggest that we don't mandate searching. As 
> veterans of the apps area can attest to, the IETF is not good at defining 
> "searching". If you rely on any search engine for email lists, you are 
> likely to be disappointed by the results. I believe that getting the 
> text-only archive and grepping is much more reliable. There is also the 
> fact that good search engines cost money and take more maintenance than 
> threading archives.

Some maintenance - yes. Certainly some initial setup. That goes for
most things.

But cost money? Next you'll be telling me that good mail agents cost
money too...

htdig <http://www.htdig.org/> is one example search engine that
springs to mind that is quite good, useful and free - and can even be
set to index and combine results for multiple domains, so searching
across multiple WG mailing lists to span an IETF area with a single
search would not be impossible.

I'm sure others can suggest other good free search tools.


> Having said that, I'm about to add searching to the lists IMC hosts. But I 
> consider this experimental, not a service anyone should rely on.

In general, the web is experimental and not a service anyone should
rely on.

L.

much amused by Ultraseek engine searches returning 'licence expired -
contact administrator'.

> --Paul Hoffman, Director
> --Internet Mail Consortium

<L.Wood at surrey.ac.uk>PGP<http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/>