At 6:13 AM 1/26/96 -0500, Duncan Frissell wrote:

At 01:58 PM 1/25/96 -0800, Bill Frantz wrote:

...

The big problem is how are the labels attached to the programs. I agree with Tim that it is probably imposible for individual Usenet postings. However is should be possible for TV programs, and whole newsgroups.

Since TV programs will soon *be* "individual Usenet postings," it will not be possible to rate them. Even the Earth doesn't have that much time. The economic "drag" involved would be too great.

I think you have a very different view of rating than I do. For example, I would be comfortable rating all the Sesame Street shows for sex and violence without seeing any more than I have seen, just based on the reputation of the show's producers. Based on reviews in the newspaper (since the net has replaced TV for me), most of the current network shows can also be rated for all their episodes. Remember also, there is an "unrated" catagory. Some people will refuse to access unrated material. Others, (I suspect you and I) may seek it out.

Once we have high-speed connections to the nets, the amount of video out there will explode. There will be more to watch than watchers (remember video archives). Search engines will help people find what they want and avoid what they don't want. "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" (Wine, Women, and Song) will be like any other available subject -- some will want to find it and some will want to avoid it. Just another problem of how to extract the content you want from all the mess. Search engines won't be all that perfect but they will be all we have.

One possible addition to search engines would be to give the people who have actually viewed the video/web page etc. an opportunity to rate it on any of several criteria including whether they thought it was worth their time. Other people could then use these ratings as they wanted (including ignoring them). The big problem I see would be making the system easy enough to use to get a reasonable response. Bill