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• Wednesday, February 1, 2006 08:38 PM

  Selecting or rating content

  Regarding another comment, I find the current editors choice system to work well for finding some good letters quickly. Editors are a natural choice to select for quality writing; that is a component of their job. Trading the editors choice feature for a readers choice feature doesn't appeal to me, perhaps partly because I've seen the results of reader moderation at slashdot.org. However, if there is sufficient interest in readers choice ratings, how about having both editors and readers choice selections?

  On an earlier item about editors choice, I am with the many people who don't believe "signing" letters with a full name should have a bearing on whether or not a letter is selected. The content is what matters, and being able to see other letters written by the same author tells me far more than knowing the name of a stranger who I will probably never meet. For that reason, I can see weighing whether a letter is anonymous as a factor, but not whether the author uses their actual name, a fake but real looking name, or a handle.

  Thanks for the survey, which I did take. It did only take a few minutes. A site like described in the survey sounds interesting, but my key concern with it would be how one can quickly find the best content. Having tried Table Talk and having limited time, I know I won't be a frequent visitor to an open forum that doesn't have features to separate thought provoking content from background noise.

  —Jake R. Read Jake R.'s other letters
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