cracraft@ai.mit.edu (Stuart Cracraft) (09/15/90)
As a PC Minix user, I am not interested in Macintosh or
Amiga Minix users except at the utility program level
and some libraries.
Therefore, why not split the newsgroup into:
comp.os.minix.ibm ... for discussion of IBM PC Minix
comp.os.minix.amiga ... for Amiga Minix devotees
comp.os.minix.mac ... for Macintosh Minix users
comp.os.minix.utils ... for common sharable utilities/commands
comp.os.minix.libs ... for common sharable libraries
comp.os.minix.announce ... for messages from AST, Evans, and others
with announcements.
Stuartfidelio@muesli.ai.mit.edu (Rob J. Nauta) (09/15/90)
Bad idea, however, splitting this newsgroup in a group for messages, and one for sources/programs is needed. A lot of people archive this newsgroup and pass it on to other minix-users, and normally 100 messages arced to one file ads up to 300K, 20/50K of messages, 250/280K for source. How about it ? PS. I DON't want to volunteer to count the votes...
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (09/15/90)
In article <10717@life.ai.mit.edu> cracraft@ai.mit.edu (Stuart Cracraft) writes: >Therefore, why not split the newsgroup into: > > comp.os.minix.ibm ... for discussion of IBM PC Minix > comp.os.minix.amiga ... for Amiga Minix devotees > comp.os.minix.mac ... for Macintosh Minix users > comp.os.minix.utils ... for common sharable utilities/commands > comp.os.minix.libs ... for common sharable libraries > comp.os.minix.announce ... for messages from AST, Evans, and others > with announcements. I'd rather wait until the Amiga and Macintosh users come online, but I am gradually coming around to the idea of some sort of split. The main argument against it is that people are sloppy. People who have an X and make a fix to, say, grep, will invariably post it to comp.os.minix.X because that is the only group they read. Thus the only way to avoid missing everything is to read them all, in which case, why split? If and when we split, I'm inclined to have one group: comp.os.minix.sources for new programs, patches, diff listings, new releases, etc. This will make life easier for archive maintainers and users, as this group will have a high signal-to-noise ratio. Possibly other groups for discussions, questions, etc. specific to one machine (ibm, amiga, atari, mac, and eventually sparc), and maybe one general-purpose group (comp.os.minix.d) for general discussion. Actually, most of the current traffic falls into that category. Maybe also a group comp.os.minix.dev.null for discussions of the PDP-11 memory management unit and the like. Anyway, lets wait until the Amiga and Mac users show up in bulk, since the problem doesn't really hit until then. Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)
overby@plains.NoDak.edu (Glen Overby) (09/15/90)
In article <10717@life.ai.mit.edu> cracraft@ai.mit.edu (Stuart Cracraft) writes: >Therefore, why not split the newsgroup into: Want a few good reasons not to? Go join the flame war in comp.unix.wizards (now comp.unix.internals) and maybe you'll get the idea. What function would splitting the newsgroup serve? As you said, you ARE interested in the other machines "at the utility program level and some libraries", so you'd have to read all of the groups anyway. How are you going to get people to rationally select which newsgroup to cast their "HELP ME" questions upon? Heck, just post it to ALL the groups and maybe you'll get an answer! Yeah, that's it! Don't forget about all the people who do not have (or cannot afford) Usenet access and have been forced to resort to the Mailing list side of things. Got anyone to run that many mailing lists? Not me! If you think comp.os.minix is bad, go read any of the msdos newsgroups; I find them all to be higher volume than .minix, with very little worthwhile content. Kill files don't work very well there, either. Now, I do see one good split: create a sources newsgroup (preferably moderated for the sole reason of having consistant organization, Archive-name lines, etc.). Said newsgroup would carry sources unencoded throughout the non-IBM world, and have a encoder on it's BitNet mailing list gateway (yup, I can do that quite easily). The use of Archive-name lines would allow people to much more easily save all the wonderful sources you already see on this group, in an organized fasion (the archive site maintainers are already, in effect, moderators). -- Glen Overby <overby@plains.nodak.edu> uunet!plains!overby (UUCP) overby@plains (Bitnet)
KPURCELL@liverpool.ac.uk (Kevin Purcell) (09/17/90)
On Sat, 15 Sep 90 06:23:00 GMT Stuart Cracraft (cracraft@EDU.MIT.AI) said: >Therefore, why not split the newsgroup into: > > comp.os.minix.ibm ... for discussion of IBM PC Minix > comp.os.minix.amiga ... for Amiga Minix devotees > comp.os.minix.mac ... for Macintosh Minix users > comp.os.minix.utils ... for common sharable utilities/commands > comp.os.minix.libs ... for common sharable libraries > comp.os.minix.announce ... for messages from AST, Evans, and others > with announcements. > > Stuart I rather think you may have a problem getting the votes for these (at the moment there aren't any Mac or Amiga Minix users :-) What about comp.sys.minix.others for those that are non of the above? And how is MINIX-L/INFO-MINIX to be used to reflect all these lists? Seems like another "portability" problem! Kevin Purcell | kpurcell@liverpool.ac.uk Surface Science, | Liverpool University | Programming the Macintosh is easy if you understand Liverpool L69 3BX | how the Mac works and hard if you don't. -- Dan Allen
umochock@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Russell Ochocki) (09/17/90)
no No NO!! You don't create half a dozen newsgroups on the same topic. Use the keywords field to sub-divide a topic. Besides, the number of machine-specific articles is rather small, IMHO. Isn't the point of MINIX to be a machine-independant operating system anyway? -- | | \/ Russell Ochocki, University of Manitoba | _/\_ Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (umochock@ccu.umanitoba.ca) |
meo@rsiatl.UUCP (Miles ONeal) (09/19/90)
There's still a LOT of crossover. If it annoys you that much, get fancy with your kill files. Delete everything that mentions, say, Mac, then pull in any key words you think you might miss. Better yet, use something like nn and just eyeball-skip those suckers.