gillies@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu (12/15/87)
I have a suggestion for simplifying the flood of redundant mail in this
newsgroup/notesfile
EITHER (a) create "comp.sys.mac.surveys" -- opinion polls where people
put out requests for information, and then summarize to the network.
Maybe make this a moderated group. The net seems to be perennially
flooded with questions like
"I'm thinking of buying a hard disk. What kind should I get"?
"What's a good communication program?"
"Name a good mail-order house.."
"What's a good price on SIMMS?"
"Should I buy a Mac II or an SE? Why?"
"What about non-apple Mac II monitors? Large Screen Displays?"
Hopefully, this newsgroup can be archived longer at many sites.
OR (b) maybe the really useful permanent info can be archived
somewhere (on SUMEX or something?) At Xerox, they have an archive
directory of "advice" (all the mass opinion polls on dentists, local
car dealers, graphs of speeding tickets/yr v.s. avg driving speed,
etc). This was a big help, and saved everyone a lot of time.
Don Gillies {ihnp4!uiucdcs!gillies} U of Illinois
{gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu}atchison@hpindda.HP.COM (Lee Atchison) (12/17/87)
I like option a). I like reading this type of information occasionally, but there is too much of it in this news group. I don't like option b) because I (and presumably many others), don't have access to ARPANET, so can't get at SUMEX (I would LOVE to be able to, however). -lee --------------- Lee Atchison Hewlett Packard, Information Networks Division atchison%hpindda@hplabs.hp.com
dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David Williams) (12/17/87)
>reducing noice, noise and mac related questions...(paraphrasing)
Hmmmm...I'm confused, what sort of dialog is supposed to be going on here? If
I have a question about a hard disk, A/UX or ethernet or a third party package
should that be going on here?
Why fracture the group into smaller areas, which means more notes files to
read unless it is on a topic which is large enough to support its own
conversations a la Hypercard. Ie comp.sys.mac.
.monitors
.harddisks
.memory
.languages
.wordprocessing
.DTP
.desktopcommunications
.surveys
.hiIamnew2themac
.rumors
.thirdpartyperipherals
seems like an awfull lot of fragmentation to me. Perhaps someone should
explain what is "supposed to be" being discussed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
David L. Williams
dlw@hpda
Hewlett Packard, Cupertino Ca
Software Development Technology Laboratory
"Sinanju, buddy -- the real stuff"