mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (01/09/84)
Time and time again, something crops up in net.general and net.followup (and often independently in net.flame) that rages on and on, and has little to do with what net.general was intended for (important announcements and queries). These discussions seem to frequently have to do with the Americans vs the Soviets, or with something else either political or controversial, and are triggered by something on the (non-Usenet) news media. I'd like to propose a newsgroup for such discussions to take place in, so we can have net.general free from such things. Since net.news is already taken, how about net.cur-events? (If anyone has a more attractive abbrevation, I'm game.) Alternatively, if someone can make a good case that this is exactly what net.politics is for (I don't read that one), let's form a policy that such things must be confined to net.politics. Examples of the discussions I'd like to have seen go into this group are the invasion of Grenada, the handgun debate, and the one that's about to start up about Jesse Jackson. Mark Horton
ken@turtleva.UUCP (Ken Turkowski) (01/10/84)
I agree with Mark. There have been too many short lived topics that
have spawned their own newsgroup, and now are inactive. However, I
don't think that net.cur_enevts is the place to put such discussions.
Traditionally they have been in net.misc.
Ken Turkowski
CADLINC, Palo Alto
{decwrl,amd70}!turtlevax!kenka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist) (01/10/84)
The examples that Mark gives (Grenada, handguns, and Jesse Jackson) have all been (or are being) discussed in net.politics. As I see it, that is where they belong, and they should stay out of other newsgroups. Kenneth Almquist
piet@mcvax.UUCP (Piet Beertema) (01/10/84)
net.cur-events isn't exactly a newsgroup that would be the first to
come to mind when you wanted to discuss matters like those mentioned,
e.g. USA vs.SU, Grenada etc. True, debates like these have been going
on in net.followup (AND net.politics). There was a strong reason for
that: net.politics on its own doesn't reach Europe, whereas net.followup
does. Plus that the debate concerns Europe as well as the USA. Even so
many Europe sites don't get net.followup either, so the next step is
to couple that to eunet.politics TOO. That means every such article
will go to three newsgroups. And so on....?
Basically the old problem of some other newsgroups [as well] is cropping
up again: what we need is a group "world.politics", that should reach all
sites inside and outside the USA. So this is a proposal for it.
USA (and Canada) bound politics could then be left to the old net.politics
newsgroup, preferably renamed usa.politics or na.politics (maybe the $20
discussion could be moved there).
--
Piet Beertema
CWI (Center for Math. & Comp. Science), Amsterdam
...{decvax,philabs}!mcvax!pietsmoot@ut-sally.UUCP (Smoot Carl-Mitchell) (01/11/84)
I'll vote for that. Why not just call it net.current?
--
Smoot Carl-Mitchell, CS Dept. University of Texas at Austin
{seismo, ctvax, ihnp4, kpno}!ut-sally!smoot, smoot@ut-sally.{ARPA, UUCP}crl@pur-phy.UUCP (Charles LaBrec) (01/11/84)
I support the idea of a current events newsgroup, but I suggest the name 'net.events' in the sake of brevity. Charles LaBrec UUCP: pur-ee!Physics:crl, purdue!Physics:crl INTERNET: crl @ pur-phy.UUCP
naftoli@aecom.UUCP (Robert Berlinger) (01/11/84)
I have seen a couple of responses that said that the reason certain
discussions were going on in net.followup and net.politics is
that net.politics doesn't get to Europe. I think this is bad practice.
An article should not be posted to a newsgroup because of where it goes
but rather what the article is about. Where an article is supposed to
go is what distribution is all about. Let's use it properly...
--
Robert Berlinger
...{philabs,cucard,pegasus}!aecom!naftoli
"If you're not where you are, you're nowhere"noel@cubsvax.UUCP (Noel Kropf) (01/12/84)
Here's my vote for world.politics
--
-- Noel Kropf {philabs,cmcl2!rocky2}!cubsvax!noel 212-280-5517
-- 1002 Fairchild; Columbia University; New York NY 10027crp@stcvax.UUCP (Charlie Price) (01/13/84)
Some comments on Mark's proposal for net.cur-events. > ... (discussion) rages on and on, and has little to do with what > net.general was intended for (important announcements and queries). Right! I DO NOT want to skip net.general because it is clogged! > Alternatively, if someone can make a good case that this is exactly > what net.politics is for (I don't read that one), > let's form a policy that such things must be confined to net.politics. This is clearly not the case. > Examples of the discussions I'd like to have seen go into this group > are the invasion of Grenada, the handgun debate, and the one that's > about to start up about Jesse Jackson. For instance, I don't think that talking about Grenada is, a priori, politics. It probably isn't any SINGLE thing in the beginning. The discussion might eventually center on political issues and be suitably reconvened into net.politics. Handguns also aren't politics. It might also end up being mostly political. JJ seems like it is mostly politics at the start. I think it is a good idea to have a place where fledgling discussions can try their wings and maybe grow up into full sized discussions with a specific focus. Some discussions will never belong anywhere special and die out soon after the "current event" that they correspond to. I strongly agree that this stuff should NOT appear in net.general other than to announce that the slugfest is underway in net.whatever. Someone suggested that this was what net.misc was for. Ummmmm... Maybe so. Misc is such a miscellaneous label though. Having a newsgroup whose purported focus is current events might direct people better than "misc". Anything that would help to usefully organize articles seems like a good idea to me. The question remaining: Is net.misc good enough or can a(nother) more specific (but general) newsgroup add to the organization of news items. I think net.cur-events (or whatever name) is probably useful enough to try. When discussions have an obvious direction they should be kicked out into the appropriate specific newsgroup and people who want to follow them can do so. -- Charlie Price - STC (disk division) uucp: { decvax, hao, ihnp4}!stcvax!crp { allegra, amd70, ucbvax }!nbires!stcvax!crp USnail: Storage Technology Corp - MD 3T / Louisville, CO / 80028 DDD: (303) 673-5698