- Area: BLUEWAVE --------------------------------------------------------------
  Msg#: 529                                          Date: 24 Feb 97 13:09:55
  From: Don Alt                                      Read: Yes   Replied: No
    To: All                                          Mark:                  
  Subj: BWave Keywords Vs Filters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                           Revised: January 21, 1995

                              Filters Vs. Keywords
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Note:  This FAQ file was written for Blue Wave v2.12 and lower, but the
     principles explained in this file still apply to all newer versions of
     Blue Wave even though some of the commands -might- have been changed or
     modified.  It's the "concept" that I'm trying to teach here that is
     important.

     Presently, in v2.12 of the Blue Wave reader or in any Blue Wave mail
     door you cannot use filters or keywords for the same echomail area.
     Each echomail area you have preselected to download you may either do
     a keyword search or a filter-word search, but not both. The common
     logic behind this is simple, and explained below.

                         = In The Blue Wave Mail Door =

     A filter-word filters out names, words or phrases. The echomail areas
     where the filter command is given are searched for filter-words, and
     when found, the messages are deleted from the mail packet about to be
     downloaded. Filter-words only kill messages containing the filter-words
     and leave the rest of the messages intact for downloading.

     Likewise, keywords also search the echomail areas where the keyword
     command is given and eliminate all messages except those containing
     keywords or personal messages addressed to you.

     Filter-words discard all messages containing the filter-words but
     keywords gather all messages containing keywords. We cannot discard
     and gather messages in the same echomail area, unfortunately.

     Since you would never make one of your keywords the same as one of
     your filter-words, because this would be giving conflicting commands,
     keyword searching would automatically eliminate filter-words. The
     only exception to this is if you want to "twit" a person and the
     person wrote a message containing one of your keywords. This is
     unavoidable, but there is a cure for this situation. Instead of doing
     keyword searches when online the BBS, filter these areas while in the
     Blue Wave door. Then, when you are offline do your keyword searching
     with the reader. If you filter the area first, you'll kill the
     filter-word messages so they are not downloaded into your mail
     packet. Then offline, you do your keyword searching with the Blue
     Wave reader and of course, the filtered-out messages are not there.

     You may create with your ASCII text editor multiple keyword files.
     Keyword files are just simple ASCII files containing a list of names
     or words you want to search for. You can have, for example, one
     keyword file for each echomail area you download. These files can be
     named after the echomail area using ".KEY" as the extension.

     At the present time, there is not such a thing as a filter-word file
     that can be used offline. Presently, filtering can only be done while
     online the BBS in the Blue Wave door prior to downloading a mail
     packet. The next version of Blue Wave will correct this situation.
     Note: The new Blue Wave readers do have filtering in v2.20 to v2.30.

                                    EXAMPLES
                                    ~~~~~~~~
                       Keywords              Filter-Words
                       ~~~~~~~~              ~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       Red                   Purple
                       Yellow                Cyan
                       Blue                  Orange
                       Green
                       Brown
                       Black

     Let's say, for demonstration purposes, that you download 20 echomail
     areas. In 10 of these areas you download all messages daily, in 5
     other echomail areas you do keyword searches, and in the last 5
     echomail areas you do filter-word searches.

     The five keyword echomail areas are numbers 101 to 105 and the five
     filter-word areas are numbers 106 to 110.

                        The bundling commands would be:

               K101 K102 K103 K104 K105 F106 F107 F108 F109 F110

     Since this is a long string to type everyday, you'd put this into the
     Blue Wave mail door... Put the keywords in the keyword section, the
     filter-words in the filter section, and the above example bundling
     command string in the Macros section. Then you'd assign a macro to do
     this one long bundling command, and possibly make the macro automatic.
     There are several choices to make here.

     You can also use the Blue Wave reader's offline configuration to
     upload keywords, filter-words and bundling command strings into the
     Blue Wave mail door, but to make the macros automatic you must be
     live online the BBS and in the Blue Wave door to do this. One very
     old Telegard Blue Wave door doesn't have this automatic feature. You
     cannot do this with QWK Mail doors.

     Presently, in the Blue Wave mail doors, there is not a way to have
     keywords for some echomail areas and other keywords for other
     echomail areas. It's an all or nothing procedure. Ditto for
     filter-words. However, you can do some experiments to get almost any
     results you want, and as explained above, if you create keyword
     files, you can have different keywords for different echomail areas
     while using the Blue Wave reader offline.

     If this has helped you then my purpose has been achieved.

                             Hope this helps!(tm),

                                      Don

     <Internet Email: Don.Alt@a20.gryn.org> * <Fido Netmail: 1:114/271.10>

... "Something good is worth waiting for! Blue Wave v2.30"  Don Alt 2/1996
--- OMX/Blue Wave/DOS v2.30
 * Origin: The ALTernate Point! - Peoria, Arizona USA (1:114/271.10)

