I apologise in advance if this is on the long side/in the wrong newsgroup. Do you have the same problems I do, when you try to use the Internet for researching scripts, etc? Is it possible for us to compile a resource that can help us all with the problems we all run up against? One of the most frustrating thing about the Internet at the moment is that, while it is crammed with useful stuff, and complex mechanisms, it is not yet aimed at the serious writer (or other professional come to that) who just wants to travel down the highway without worrying about what's going on inside the engine. All the books and articles I've read, including some quite good introductory books, start from the available features (eg: the web, usegroups, Archie, ftp) and tell you what you can do with them.. What they don't do is start from the other end - which tends to be the professional user's end - ie: the needs of the user. :-( ) <scream of frustration> For example, a recent article mentioned gophers. It said that you can use gophers through Netscape, but that you get "better" results from dedicated gopher software. But what does "better" mean? Does it mean faster, or more accurate, or more detailed, or that it will access a wider range of material, or I'll get a longer list, or what? None of the books I've read answer this question. As a professional screenwriter, I tend to need the following - quite distinct - types of research, with quite different requirements: a) Specific facts. eg: what were the key dates of the Spanish Civil War, the battles, the names etc. This kind of information is not file-specific, in that it's probably held in a number of different places, and it doesn't matter which one I get it from. After all, 1936 is 1936, wherever it's stored. b) Opinions, eg: historical accounts of the Spanish Civil War. These are more file-specific, in that one historian's account is not the same as someone else's. However, I probably don't want to specify a particular historian. c) Contemporary accounts, eg: letters from people involved, soldiers, eye-witnesses, etc. Here I care about the specific words, but am still not asking for a particular author. Are there search engines that are better at distinguishing such files. d) Specific files, eg: I might want the lyrics of the Red Flag, or a particular Spanish folk song. e) Background information. eg: social, geographical, cultural facts about Spain in the first half of the century. Maybe even pictures. I hope these criteria clarify the kind of searches I've been trying to carry out with enormous effort and often little effect. (I'm not asking for this actual information - the Spanish Civil War is only given as an example). I've already spent hours that could be spent writing and earning money in fruitless trawls (and spent a fair amount of money in phone charges in the process). Of course, I'll do it if I have to - but there must be people out there who have already used all these things and can give me (and people like me) some answers. If we can pool our experiences then we should be able to make the whole system a lot more friendly to use. Sorry again about the length of this posting. <echoing cry for help slowly dies away across the phone lines> Charlie Harris.......... [log in to unmask] Charlie Harris ================================ [log in to unmask] ================================ ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]