Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site nsc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!menlo70!nsc!chuqui From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: net.news.group Subject: Re: On Proposing New Groups Message-ID: <714@nsc.UUCP> Date: Tue, 28-Feb-84 14:47:40 EST Article-I.D.: nsc.714 Posted: Tue Feb 28 14:47:40 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 2-Mar-84 15:45:24 EST References: <2612@alice.UUCP> <313@ut-ngp.UUCP> Organization: National Semiconductor, Sunnyvale Lines: 51 Werner has a good point. Sometimes there might be a topic that comes up that simply doesn't seem to fit anywhere else, so creating traffic flow to justify it becomes hard. By requiring traffic flow on a topic before we create it, and then not giving it a place to generate traffic, we put these topics right between a large rock and an even larger rock. As one of the more vocal proponents of the "Don't create it until it proves itself" school of ballroom dancing, let me attempt to explain WHY I feel the way I do: o First, there are places where random topics can be set up. At times they are inconvenient, but they exist. Net.misc is a good place for things that don't have any real home. You can also consider playing conqueror and simply take over a unused topic. Applicative programming? Why not take over net.research? That is stretching the point a bit, but if you leave pointers in, say, net.misc and net.news.group (I hesitate to suggest net.general) that a subject is starting in a given topic, it will get those interested to look in. The topic doesn't even have to come close to the subject if you don't want it to and have enough people to keep the discussion going (this is the real advantage of an anarchy like the net). If I want to talk with all of my friends about Third Dynasty Egyptian Tarot Cards in net.wobegon, I can, and there isn't anything they can really do about it. Realistically I would use some topic with NO usage such as net.rec.wood instead of one that simply has pitiful usage, but you get the idea. o If there were some way to get rid of the d*mn topics that don't work out I'd be a lot easier on creating the idiotic things. net.tv.da was created as a temporary topic and it is STILL around! (hint! Hint! HINT!) Which means that this is the last time I will recommend a temporary topic. If a topic can be created with some assurance that we can get rid of it if it bombs, I'd be a little more willing to experiment, but reality shows me that once it exists, it exists forever unless people go to outrageous expense (and risk bodily harm) to get rid of them. It isn't the topic that is the problem, it is the net. There are some real problems with the way the net works and is administered, and we simply haven't found any good answers to them yet. Until we do, I am going to continue to scream for a conservative attitude on topics because otherwise we will overwhelm ourselves with lots of things that nobody uses or understands... chuq -- From the Citadel of the Autarch: Chuqui the Plaid {fortune,menlo70}!nsc!chuqui P.S. Nuke Wobegon! Don't dream it, be it!