jef@ace.ee.lbl.gov (Jef Poskanzer) (03/12/89)
It was a good discussion group, but it died. Probably due to the
stupid name.
It turns out, though, there there are quite a few groups with no
traffic. I have appended a list of 16 moderated groups and 32 free
groups that are dead dead dead.
Suggestion: after a few months with no traffic, a moderated group
should be changed to free, with the change announced in the group to
see if any discussion gets going. I suppose it would also be polite to
send mail to the moderator noting the change. Then, anyone who wants
to become the new moderator, including the old moderator, is free to
petition; or if it takes off, it can just remain free.
As for a free group with no traffic for a few months, just remove the
sucker. If anyone objects, they can vote to have the group re-created.
---
Jef
Jef Poskanzer jef@helios.ee.lbl.gov ...well!pokey
And this, too, shall pass away.
comp.binaries.hypercard m
comp.graphics.digest m
comp.hypercube m
comp.lang.clu m
comp.laser-printers m
comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway m
comp.protocols.kermit m
comp.society m
comp.std.mumps m
comp.sys.m68k.pc m
comp.sys.workstations m
comp.theory.info-retrieval m
rec.humor.spc m
rec.mag.fsfnet m
soc.human-nets m
soc.politics.arms-d m
comp.ai.ailist y
comp.bugs.misc y
comp.dcom.lans.hyperchannel y
comp.dcom.lans.v2lni y
comp.edu.composition y
comp.ibm.binaries.d y
comp.lang.forth.mac y
comp.lang.idl y
comp.lang.lisp.common y
comp.lang.rexx y
comp.mail.headers y
comp.mail.mhs y
comp.mail.mhs.arpa y
comp.mail.multi-media y
comp.os.rsts y
comp.os.v y
comp.protocols.pcnet y
comp.sources.unix.forgeries y
comp.sys.cdc y
comp.sys.celerity y
comp.sys.symbolics y
comp.unix.cray y
comp.windows.cl y
gnu.emacs.bugs y
gr.flame y
gr.general y
gr.quality y
misc.psi m
news.software.notes y
news.stargate y
rec.arts.tv.bbc y
rec.games.vectrex ywisner@mailrus.cc.umich.edu (Bill Wisner) (03/13/89)
Many of the newsgroups Jef Poskanzer lists are not valid. I think it's time for him to run a checkgroups. :comp.hypercube m (long since changed to comp.parallel) :rec.humor.spc m (deleted at moderator's request) :rec.mag.fsfnet m Now this one really *is* dead. It was gatewayed from a BITNET mailing list that has since left us. The issue will, however, have to be taken up with Erik Fair, since it is an inet newsgroup. :comp.ai.ailist y I have no idea how Jef picked this one up. It's certainly not for real, though. :comp.ibm.binaries.d y Created by a bungled newgroup message long ago. I mean *really* bungled; the perpetrator didn't even get the newsgroup name right. :comp.lang.lisp.common y (not listed as valid) :comp.mail.mhs y (not listed as valid) :comp.mail.mhs.arpa y (not listed as valid) :comp.sources.unix.forgeries y (does this look real to you, Jef?) :comp.sys.symbolics y (not listed as valid) :comp.windows.cl y (not listed as valid) :gr.flame y (gr?) :gr.general y :gr.quality y :news.stargate y (long dead by request of Stargate) :rec.arts.tv.bbc y (rogue newgroup) :rec.games.vectrex y (another dead inet mailing list group)
tale@pawl.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence) (03/13/89)
In <995@mailrus.cc.umich.edu> wisner@mailrus.cc.umich.edu (Bill Wisner) writes:
Bill> Many of the newsgroups Jef Poskanzer lists are not valid. I think
Bill> it's time for him to run a checkgroups.
And at least one of them that he did list is valid and active under a
nearly identical name. gnu.emacs.bug gets traffic nearly every day,
if even just a single article. (It was listed as gnu.emacs.bugs).
So why don't checkgroups go out bi-annually or at least yearly?
--
tale@rpitsmts.bitnet, tale%mts@rpitsgw.rpi.edu, tale@pawl.rpi.eduspaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) (03/13/89)
In article <TALE.89Mar12163841@imagine.pawl.rpi.edu> tale@pawl.rpi.edu writes: >So why don't checkgroups go out bi-annually or at least yearly? They go out monthly in news.admin. However, they aren't sent as control messages -- you have to extract the text and run it yourself locally. I don't post them as worldwide control messages because I get back hundreds of bounced mail messages, strange error notices, and more than a few death threats because people had their news configured oddly and it destroyed their pet local groups. -- Gene Spafford NSF/Purdue/U of Florida Software Engineering Research Center, Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004 Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu uucp: ...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spaf
wisner@mailrus.cc.umich.edu (Bill Wisner) (03/13/89)
tale@pawl.rpi.edu: >And at least one of them that he did list is valid and active under a >nearly identical name. gnu.emacs.bug gets traffic nearly every day, >if even just a single article. (It was listed as gnu.emacs.bugs). gnu.emacs.bug is valid. gnu.emacs.bugs is the result of a typo made by one of the OSU people many months ago. A rmgroup was sent out soon thereafter. The newsgroup should not still exist. It is, then, invalid, as I said.
jef@ace.ee.lbl.gov (Jef Poskanzer) (03/13/89)
As seventeen bezillion people have pointed out, some of the groups
I listed had already been rmgrouped. Therefore, here are my lists
and suggestions again, with only groups that appear in the most
recent checkgroups message. Yes, even rec.games.vectrex.
Suggestion: after a few months with no traffic, a moderated group
should be changed to free, with the change announced in the group to
see if any discussion gets going. I suppose it would also be polite to
send mail to the moderator noting the change. Then, anyone who wants
to become the new moderator, including the old moderator, is free to
petition; or if it takes off, it can just remain free.
As for a free group with no traffic for a few months, just remove the
sucker. If anyone objects, they can vote to have the group re-created.
---
Jef
Jef Poskanzer jef@helios.ee.lbl.gov ...well!pokey
And this, too, shall pass away.
comp.graphics.digest m
comp.lang.clu m
comp.laser-printers m
comp.protocols.iso.x400.gateway m
comp.protocols.kermit m
comp.society m
comp.std.mumps m
comp.sys.m68k.pc m
comp.sys.workstations m
comp.theory.info-retrieval m
rec.mag.fsfnet m
soc.human-nets m
soc.politics.arms-d m
comp.bugs.misc y
comp.dcom.lans.hyperchannel y
comp.dcom.lans.v2lni y
comp.edu.composition y
comp.lang.forth.mac y
comp.lang.idl y
comp.lang.rexx y
comp.mail.headers y
comp.mail.multi-media y
comp.os.rsts y
comp.os.v y
comp.protocols.pcnet y
comp.sys.cdc y
comp.sys.celerity y
comp.unix.cray y
news.software.notes y
rec.games.vectrex ypeter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (03/13/89)
In article <2091@helios.ee.lbl.gov>, jef@ace.ee.lbl.gov (Jef Poskanzer) writes: > Suggestion: after a few months with no traffic, a moderated group > should be changed to free, with the change announced in the group to > see if any discussion gets going. I suppose it would also be polite to > send mail to the moderator noting the change. The first thing you should do is contact the moderator and find out why the group is inactive. I am currently involved in a discussion with one guy who rmgrouped 'alt.sources.amiga' because it was inactive. He didn't post any messages to alt.config beforehand, and didn't have the common courtesy to send me a message asking about the lack of activity. Alt.sources.amiga is basically a backup group to allow for the periodic lapses in comp.sources.amiga. It doesn't have as much distribution as the regular group, but I do provide fast turnaround and testing. Right now Bob Page is doing a decent job with the regular group, so there's no need for me to post stuff. Moderating a group is a tough job, though, so I expect he'll eventually need a vacation... -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Personal: ...!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.
karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (03/14/89)
wisner@mailrus.cc.umich.edu (Bill Wisner) writes:
gnu.emacs.bugs is the result of a typo made by one of the OSU people
No, it was a typo made by the admin at a school that started carrying
gnu.* shortly after the subhierarchy's creation, and they newgroup'd
the whole set, with this one glitch. I rmgroup'd it.
Moral: When installing a whole bunch of new newsgroups, get the admin
of the upstream feed to send you the relevant portion of his/her
active file, and install that, raw, into your own active file, rather
than execute massive newgroups.
--Karlpokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) (03/15/89)
In the referenced message, peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) wrote: }Alt.sources.amiga is basically a backup group to allow for the periodic }lapses in comp.sources.amiga. In that case, the group should be removed immediately. The correct solution to this problem, as explained by me months ago, and as currently being implemented by Mike Wexler of comp.sources.x, is to have a backup moderator. --- Jef Jef Poskanzer jef@helios.ee.lbl.gov ...well!pokey "The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was." -- Walt West
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (03/16/89)
In article <10979@well.UUCP>, pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) writes: > In that case, the group should be removed immediately. The correct > solution to this problem, as explained by me months ago, and as currently > being implemented by Mike Wexler of comp.sources.x, is to have a backup > moderator. Nice sentiment. Unfortunately that solution was politically untenable. Creating alt.sources.amiga cut through a humongeous flame war and solved the problem. The new moderator is much more reasonable, but other people involved in the farce are still active in the amiga groups. And even if removing the group was appropriate, the first thing you should do is attempt to contact the current moderator. Moderators put a lot of time and effort into the net, and should be involved in any decision about the group they moderate. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Personal: ...!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.