[news.groups] comp.sources.wanted useless?

kyle@xanth.UUCP (Kyle Jones) (08/21/87)

I agree that comp.sources.wanted is not an appealing newsgroup to
read, but I cannot condone posting "wanted" messages in other
newsgroups either.  comp.sources.wanted has to be made less of a waste
of time for the reader.  To put it bluntly, the group needs to be
moderated.

I envision an electronic "classified-ads" where each ad is a short
phrase stating what is type of program is desired and an e-mail
address to contact.  Ads requesting the same software or same type of
software could be coalesced into one ad with a list of contacts.

This "classified" page could be posted weekly.

Such a system would solve all the problems that I see with the current
scheme, that is:

  * multiple (or repeated) requests for software
  * articles too long (subject lines, if concise,  should be enough)
  * one article per request (have to type 'n' too often)

If the format of the newsgroup were palatable, I believe more people
would read it.  Some organization and a lot less individual articles
would be a good start.

Comments?

kyle jones   <kyle@odu.edu>   old dominion university, norfolk, va

rob@philabs.Philips.Com (Rob Robertson) (08/25/87)

In article <2205@xanth.UUCP> kyle@xanth.UUCP (Kyle Jones) writes:
>I agree that comp.sources.wanted is not an appealing newsgroup to
>read, but I cannot condone posting "wanted" messages in other
>newsgroups either.  comp.sources.wanted has to be made less of a waste
>of time for the reader.  To put it bluntly, the group needs to be
>moderated.

>Comments?

I disagree, I don't read comp.sources.wanted.  I scan the subject
lines using the "=" key in rn, and then respond based on if I can
help them.  Bundling everything up defeats this method. 

Two other thoughts.  Sometimes it is adviseable to put a state wide/
city wide distribution on a wanted message, moderating defeats that.
There is also a time lag between it getting to the moderator and
back out on the net, which if you need something urgently is a
bother.

rob

-- 
					william robertson
					rob@philabs.philips.com
					914  945 6300