Re: Re WIT

Tim Berners-Lee (timbl@www3.cern.ch)
Fri, 10 Jun 94 16:07:32 +0200


Terry says,
> I tried it and it took me ten times as long to use it as to write
> ordinary email. Specifically, having to navigate slows me down,

Hmmm. Given that often 100 times as much person time is spent
reading a document as writing it, slowing down the author for
the sake of extra reader power is not all bad! :-))

Seriously, I agree that the interface could be easier. Just that
Mosaic isn't as evolved as your favorite mail reader, and also
that WIT is a little cluttered on the output side: a case for
interface refinement: not beyond the wit of man.

Keith says,

> Organization is a very important first step towards
> filtering. But, I doubt that anyone will really
> want to read THIS EMAIL message ten years from now,
> even if it's part of a system like WIT:) So, how
> would it get filtered out?
>

> Keith.

We had in mind extra buttons for moderators which would
allow for example documents to be approved or deleted, or just
given raised or lowered "star ratings". Baiscally, seals of approval.
This would allow one to get a view filtered for timeless value
according to the panel. The trick is to make it simple to do,
like the argument entry. It's a going to be a lot easier for the
moderator than having to arrange discussion into a tree. One of
the hopes for WIT was that it would focuss discussion into
a tree, and prevent the sort of ramblings which people sometimes
get into on mail (like the time that the hypertext interface
discussion got into blueberry picking -- remember that? That
was back when we had the 1906A -- by the way has anyone got a
WWW client for a 1906A?... etc etc etc)