On 4/06/05 3:07, in article ,
"Charles Hawtrey" wrote:

As opposed to the dazzling inventiveness and originality of someone who
copies and pastes news stories into Usenet posts..?

Pretty much, it depends on the response to a posting. For instance,
this particular posting sequence "Paris the world's choice for the 2012
Olympics" has 30 hits, a mild yield but it will only be super topical
in a month when the decision is made. When the actual decision
is published, I might post that news item.

So the inventiveness and originality comes partly from posting
a subject which will get other people posting. I am what I call
mainly a "primary poster", most people are "reactive".

The other issue is whether a primary post is particularly useful
to most or is merely entertainment directed?

I had a conversation with the desk editor of the International
Herald Tribune years ago. He said that only about 1% of the stuff
which comes over the wires ends up in the paper, his work is
selecting items. He had to select items which mostly
attracted readers but always in the back of his mind was the
idea of informing them on important issues. It is a really successful
article which can do both.

I think the information that Paris is the primary world's choice for the
Olympics interesting and the kind of information which you might not
normally get. Whether it was interesting to you or not is another matter
but to some it was.

Earl