From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhtsa!alice!sjb
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Title: Re: Topics for Discussion
Article-I.D.: alice.913
Posted: Fri Sep 10 18:27:18 1982
Received: Sat Sep 11 02:21:06 1982
References: uiucdcs.697

I read this newsgroup mostly because my general policy is to subscribe
to all (yes, everything -- no comments about masochism please!) and just
say 'n' to the things I don't feel like reading.  I have looked at every
Star Trek article that has come through here, and when I mentioned the
number 13, I meant that our site (alice) has only seen 13 Star Trek
articles.  If there have been more, I'm sorry, but we did not get them.
My main objection to the formation of the group was that the grounds for
it were that there were to be several more ST movies in the future, and
people took the experience of all the ST stuff in net.movies and decided
they did not want all that there, but rather here (if you can't figure
out the grammar of that one, join the club!)  However, once the group
itself was created, discussion dies down.  Only now has discussion picked
up.  Now, to pick out just one of your examples, I am not opposed to
net.games.atari or net.atari or whatever, but the way things seem to be
going, we would soon be seeing net.games.atari.combat, net.games.atari.tank,
etc. etc. etc.  I agree, Star Trek is a nice topic, I love it myself, but
what would happen if everyone wanted to start a group for their favorite
TV show?  You may forget, but there *IS* a limit to the possible number
of newsgroups; you reach it when your .newsrc file gets too big.  What's
gonna happen when we get net.mash, net.barney-miller, net.mork&mindy, etc?
Certainly these have their big followings as well, but do they all deserve
newsgroups of their own?  Perhaps they may, but the thing is that the
software as it is set up now can only handle a certain number of newsgroups.
Granted, we may be a ways from reaching that limit now, but if the trend
of making newsgroups more and more specific continues, we may not be a ways
from it in the future.  In any case, my main thing is not a dislike for
Star Trek, on the contrary, I happen to LOVE Star Trek, but a concern over
the growing trend to make more and more newsgroups and then find that they
are not being used as much as promised.  Maybe if we could get rid of some
of the groups that have died, this might be a little easier, but no one
is doing that now.  In any case, I have said enough.  I am already sorry
for flaming all over the net, when private mail may have been better, but
I wanted to voice my opinion.

Live long and prosper,
Adam