Terminology (was: Configuring spam.el: A few questions)

[Jonas Steverud <tvrud@bredband.net>]

Dan Christensen <jdc@uwo.ca> writes:

[...]
> The last two lines seem to contradict the first line, so maybe there
> is no strict definition of what "unread" means.

Seems like it is time IMHO for some spring cleaning...?

It seems like the big problem is the terms "read" and "unread" that is
the problem.

Suggested new terms/definitions:
 Visited: A article that the user has seen before; read, ticked,
          dormant, marked as expireable, ... (Other criteria?)

 Read: An article that has been marked as killed, ancient, read in the
       naïve sense; i.e. actually *read*, ... I.e. not ticked etc.

 Unvisted or Unread: Replaces Unseen which I find confusing - an
                     article that is killed and yanked from the
                     summary buffer is in my view unseen.

 Unseen: (?) Articles that are unvisited but not shown in the summary
         buffer, usually expunged articles due to scoring.

Maybe Unseen should be considered Visited, i.e. an expunged article is
considered visited. But isn't it a difference between expunge and
mark-and-expunge? (Checks info...) Yes it is. (Actually, what happens
with an article that is expunged but not marked as read? Will it still
count as unread and the group will show unread articles in *Group* buffer?)

I have not given this very much thought but the unread/read and unseen
terms seams a little confusing and maybe it should be replaced by
"visited" or some similar term? Opinions?

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