> I have tried to read the explanation of score in connection with score files
> in Yarn and Souper for Windows respectively. But still, I cannot follow the
> idea all the way through. My problem is my incabability to fathom the way
> in which score values are calculated. Why can a score be negative, for
> instance when it says that an article's score value is zero initially? That
> is what confuses me a lot.
The reason that a calculated score can be less than zero is because you
can assign positive *or negative* weights to the various criteria you set
up in your score file. Things you want to see are given positive scores,
and things you don't want to see are given negative scores.
All of the potential scores (positive and negative) which apply are added
up for each individual posting going through the score filter, and the end
result of that addition (whatever it may be) is the final score for that
particular posting. The end result can be positive or negative, but that
is completely dependent on the score file you create -- if you don't have
any negative score filters set up, you can't get a nagative score.
For example, I can set up a score file for Yarn with two global entries:
one which adds 10 points to any message from "joe@someisp.com", and one
which adds -5 points (subtract 5 points) for any message with the word
"Netscape" in the Subject header or message body.
The end result for most people's postings would be 0 for a normal posting
or -5 for a posting containing "Netscape" in the subject or in the message
body. joe@someisp.com is a friend of mine, though, and the weights for
his messages are almost always 10; when he talks about Netscape, however,
the weight for that particular posting of his would be 5.
If I have Yarn set up to only display those messages with a score of 0 or
greater, then I'll always see postings from joe@someisp.com because there
is no possible way that his messages can go negative. However, if anyone
else posts something about netscape, the scored weight of that posting is
-5, so I don't see the message.
I hope that helps a little...?
--
-Rich Steiner >>>---> rsteiner@skypoint.com >>>---> Bloomington, MN
Written online (ugh!) using pine!
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.