From:	gfoot AT mc31 DOT merton DOT ox DOT ac DOT uk (George Foot)
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: c.o.m.djgpp retro-moderated?
Date:	7 Mar 1997 19:40:30 GMT
Organization:	Oxford University
Message-ID:	<5fpqve$pc3@news.ox.ac.uk>
References:	<Pine DOT SUN DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 970306131351 DOT 20341H AT is> <E6oFB4 DOT 83L AT boss DOT cs DOT ohiou DOT edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	mc31.merton.ox.ac.uk
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To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

Dave Cigna (cigna AT helios DOT phy DOT OhioU DOT Edu) wrote:
[...]
: Having said that, I propose a small hierarchy of groups:

I'm not sure whether I am for or against the splitting of the group, but
if it is decided that this is the right thing to do then I'd like to make
a few points...

: c.o.m.djgpp                 what doesn't fit in the other groups

AFAIK the general preference is not to have groups part-way down a tree;
if c.o.m.djgpp.* exist then c.o.m.djgpp shouldn't. Maybe it should be
renamed to c.o.m.djgpp.misc?

: c.o.m.djgpp.newbie          (there must be a better name for this!)

comp.os.msdos.djgpp.tech-support perhaps? Or would this lead people to
treat it as a paid-for service (i.e. demanding support rather than politely
asking for it)?

: c.o.m.djgpp.graphics 

I'm not sure why exactly you chose graphics; I don't think there are that
many graphics-related posts to the newsgroup/mailing list at present.

: c.o.m.djgpp.announce        mirror of the mailing list

: Note the the announce group could be fully moderated without much 
: effort.

Indeed, the mailing list already is. There aren't very many announcements,
though.

[...]

: On the other hand, a fully moderated mailing list might work and could
: even be linked with usenet. In other words, a moderator would select
: suitable posts and email submissions to send to the list. There'd be
: no point in reading that AND the newsgroup because one would be a
: subset of the other.

This would require a lot of time from the moderator(s), and would slow
down the response speed (which is usually less than a day).

Perhaps a better system (which I suggested about a week ago) would be
for someone (if anyone has enough time) who reads the group/list 
religiously to extract the most relevant points, summarize long articles
where appropriate, etc, to provide a cut-down digest for people who just
want the bare facts, with no discussion. AFAIK the current digest mailing
lists are not treated in this way; they are just amalgamations of the 
day/week's mail.

-- 
George Foot <gfoot AT mc31 DOT merton DOT ox DOT ac DOT uk>
Merton College, Oxford.

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