Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!umd5!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiucdcsp!gillies
From: gillies@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Reducing Noise
Message-ID: <76000073@uiucdcsp>
Date: 14 Dec 87 18:46:00 GMT
Lines: 26
Nf-ID: #N:uiucdcsp:76000073:000:1085
Nf-From: uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Dec 14 12:46:00 1987


I have a suggestion for simplifying the flood of redundant mail in this
newsgroup/notesfile

EITHER (a) create "comp.sys.mac.surveys" -- opinion polls where people
put out requests for information, and then summarize to the network.
Maybe make this a moderated group.  The net seems to be perennially
flooded with questions like

 "I'm thinking of buying a hard disk.  What kind should I get"?
 "What's a good communication program?"
 "Name a good mail-order house.."
 "What's a good price on SIMMS?"
 "Should I buy a Mac II or an SE?  Why?"
 "What about non-apple Mac II monitors? Large Screen Displays?"

Hopefully, this newsgroup can be archived longer at many sites.

OR (b) maybe the really useful permanent info can be archived
somewhere (on SUMEX or something?)  At Xerox, they have an archive
directory of "advice" (all the mass opinion polls on dentists, local
car dealers, graphs of speeding tickets/yr v.s. avg driving speed,
etc).  This was a big help, and saved everyone a lot of time.

Don Gillies {ihnp4!uiucdcs!gillies} U of Illinois
            {gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu}