It just occurred to me that another (admittedly somewhat far-out)
approach to the problem David S. has mentioned would be an auto-FAQ
system. A computer would serve as the "moderator" for the newsgroup.
For each new article (as opposed to follow-ups), a similarity search
would be run between the posting and the FAQ list and the last n
months of posting. If any hits occurred, the system would return
the posting(s) or FAQ(s) to the sender instead of posting the article.
Additionally, any posting receiving a large number of hits would
automatically be added to the FAQ (for later human editing, hopefully).
Whadda ya think? A good idea, or have I been looking at too
much BLAST output for my own good?
Keith Robison
Harvard University
Program in Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
robison at ribo.harvard.edu
