Re: total and auto expiry

[David S Goldberg <david.goldberg6@verizon.net>]

>>>>> On Thu, 13 Mar 2003 13:34:16 -0500, Alexander Kotelnikov
>>>>> <sacha@myxomop.com> said:

> This also means that "total" described as dangerous is not too much
> more dangerous than "auto", isn't it?

Well I don't think that we should say that auto-expire is for wimps,
but at least with auto-expire it's very explicitly clear to the user
that an article is marked expireable and that the user must take some
action if s/he doesn't want it to be.  Moreover if using total-expire
and a tick or dormant mark (which are not total-expired) is
inadvertently removed and expiry takes place, the article will be
lost.  That is not an issue for auto-expire.  I therefore think
total-expire is more dangerous than auto-expire.

> So it can be advised to use total with adaptive scoring and auto
> otherwise. At first approximation they are the same.

In spite of being bitten by the problems described I use and prefer
total-expire in most of my groups.  I really like adaptive scoring.
And I've got very good backups.

-- 
Dave Goldberg
david.goldberg6@verizon.net