spaf@gatech.CSNET (Gene Spafford) (07/30/85)
(My apologies to readers of net.news.group if you see this twice -- inews
barfed when I tried to feed this to all 14 groups at once).
I just recently deleted a number of newsgroups that had seen minimal or
no use in the last few months. Since that time, I have gotten mail
from a few people suggesting other candidates for removal based on
their lack of activity. It seems to make sense that if we won't create
a new newsgroup without an indication of potential use, there is no
justification for keeping newsgroups which get no significant use after
creation.
Site "gatech" has a news history of about 3 years. That is, all our
newsgroup numbering started when we came on the net about 3 years ago.
Thus, I have a pretty good indication of overall activity on a
newsgroup by checking our active file.
The following newsgroups have had little use recently and less than 150
articles in the last three years. For many of the groups, that
includes their entire lifespan. Additionally, it appears that anywhere
from 1/2 to 2/3 of the articles posted to many of these groups are
cross-posted to other, currently active groups. There seems to be
little need to keep these groups around.
Unless someone provides me with a good reason not to, I will be
removing the following groups on or about August 15:
net.bugs.v7
net.decus
net.games.go
net.lang.apl
net.math.symbolic
net.micro.432
net.notes
net.rec.birds
net.rec.scuba
net.rec.skydive
net.std
net.theater
net.usoft
--
Gene "4 months and counting" Spafford
The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet: Spaf @ GATech ARPA: Spaf%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
uucp: ...!{akgua,allegra,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!spafabc@brl-tgr.ARPA (Brint Cooper ) (07/31/85)
I sure would like to see activity on net.math.symbolic. At the very
least, I'd like to see it kept around for a little while longer.
Judging a serious newsgroup like this based upon its May-Aug traffic is
somewhat invalid since this is the time of low academic activity.
I have been the beneficiary of net.math.symbolic on more than one
occasion. It is my principal means of communication with other uses of
Macsyma, Maple, and other systems. Any system that can support
net.jokes on the basis of its traffic volume should be able to tolerate
something like net.math.symbolic until this relatively new field catches
on a little more.
Cheers,
Brint
ARPA: abc@brl.arpa
UUCP: ...{decvax,cbosgd}!brl-bmd!abc
Dr Brinton Cooper
U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory
Attn: AMXBR-SECAD (Cooper)
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5066
Offc: 301 278-6883 AV: 298-6883 FTS: 939-6883gws@cbnap.UUCP (Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR)) (07/31/85)
>I just recently deleted a number of newsgroups that had seen minimal or >no use in the last few months. Since that time, I have gotten mail >from a few people suggesting other candidates for removal based on >their lack of activity. It seems to make sense that if we won't create >a new newsgroup without an indication of potential use, there is no >justification for keeping newsgroups which get no significant use after >creation. > >Site "gatech" has a news history of about 3 years. That is, all our >newsgroup numbering started when we came on the net about 3 years ago. >Thus, I have a pretty good indication of overall activity on a >newsgroup by checking our active file. > >The following newsgroups have had little use recently and less than 150 >articles in the last three years. For many of the groups, that >includes their entire lifespan. Additionally, it appears that anywhere >from 1/2 to 2/3 of the articles posted to many of these groups are >cross-posted to other, currently active groups. There seems to be >little need to keep these groups around. > >Unless someone provides me with a good reason not to, I will be >removing the following groups on or about August 15: > net.bugs.v7 > net.decus > net.games.go > net.lang.apl > net.math.symbolic > net.micro.432 > net.notes > net.rec.birds > net.rec.scuba > net.rec.skydive > net.std > net.theater > net.usoft > Gene; I agree about removal of all your listed groups, but net.decus. I believe that it should stay. It seems to me (in my short net life) that net.decus has a small, but steady flow of traffic. net.decus seems to have about twice the traffic that net.usenix, but I doubt that anyone will get rid of that news group. tnx Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) ihnp4!cbnap!gws AT&T Bell Labs (Columbus, Oh) -- test of sig file
kogeddes@watmum.UUCP (Keith O. Geddes) (08/01/85)
I would not like to see net.math.symbolic disappear. I anticipate that activity in this newsgroup is very likely to pick up substantially over the next couple of years. Those of us in the Maple group at Waterloo have not been very active in net.math.symbolic news items up until now, but given the fact that we are a very active group developing Maple and are about to distribute Maple to substantially more users than has been the case in the past, my guess is that we will find ourselves communicating much more with users of Maple, and Macsyma, Reduce, etc., through this news group.
dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) (08/06/85)
I feel very strongly that net.bugs.v7 should not go away.
It serves an extremely useful purpose, and cross-posting is
to be expected. We run v7 here. If someone finds a bug which
is present in (say) 4BSD and v7, they'll cross-post to those
two groups. I, needless to say, do not read net.bugs.4bsd.
I read everything in net.bugs.v7 VERY carefully. I also
post to it when I discover bugs which others may want to know.
There are still lots of v7 sites out there.
There is an important distinction between little-used leisure
groups (net.rec.whatever) and little-used technical groups
which have a specific and well-defined purpose. If even ten
articles a year appear in net.bugs.v7, and five of those mention
bugs which are present on my machine, I sure want access to them.
Remember, not everyone can keep up with net.unix-wizards or other
high-volume groups where such bugs might be reported.
Dave Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
--
{ ihnp4!utzoo pesnta utcs hcr decvax!utcsri } !lsuc!davespaf@gatech.CSNET (Gene Spafford) (08/13/85)
My summary of responses to this article have been posted to net.news.group,
article id <813@gatech.CSNET>
--
Gene "4 months and counting" Spafford
The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet: Spaf @ GATech ARPA: Spaf%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
uucp: ...!{akgua,allegra,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!spaf