From: lmollett@lunatix.uucp (Laura Mollett)
Subject: Re: Group splits, killfiles...
Organization: Lexington Public Access Unix. -KY- (606) 253-1481 
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 15:11:26 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.185403.2064@metrosoft.com> gvh@metrosoft.com (Gordon Van Huizen) writes:
>In article <96769@netnews.upenn.edu> rsk@gynko.circ.upenn.edu (Rich  
>Kulawiec) writes:
>> BTW, one useful tip for folks whose
>> newsreaders support killfiles or an equivalent mechanism: since articles
>> in news.announce.newgroups are usually followed by a discussion in
>> news.groups, if you see a thread starting that doesn't issue you,
>> add the subject to your news.groups killfile. 
>
>Hmmm. This would have been a great way to add the rec.music.makers  
>proposal article subjects to your killfile based on the first RFD which  
>didn't affect rec.music.synth.
>
YES!  It seems to me like this could be a very serious problem.  Mebbe it 
would be more of a problem in rec.games.frp.* (where I came from) than in
rec.music.synth (which I know nothing about), but suppose someone didn't want
to see anything more about guitars in a group about synthesizers (however
you spell it).  They might add "guitars" to their killfile, and if the RFD or
CFV came up including "alt.guitars" as part of the subject header, they might
miss the whole discussion truly without even realizing.  The killfile could
have been created some time before the RFD was even considered.  Or suppose
someone like Dave Hayes (no offense intended) had been very vocal about 
another discussion.  I have seen people add a person's name to their killfile
to avoid hearing any more from them.  If that same person then runs a vote,
wouldn't the entire discussion be killed leaving the reader totally unaware
that it ever took place?

In rec.games.frp.* people routinely put game names that they are not interested
in their killfiles.  If someone is killing Shadowrun posts and the RFD and
CFV on the new Cyberpunk or Shadowrun group (not clear what it will be yet)
goes through with a subject header something like "RFD - rec.games.frp.shadowrun
a person not interested in technical Shadowrun discussions could easily miss
it altogether.  Just because one is not interested in specific game discussions
does not mean one is not interested in a new rec.games.whatever group...nor
would it mean that they were too ignorant and apathetic to read RFD or CFV
subjects.  They may never have seen them at all.

It seems to me like the best solution would be to post RFD and CFV as
something like "RFD (Request For Discussion) - rec.games.frp.*".  Noone would
have that in their killfile unless they really didn't want to see RFD's.  Yes,
that would mean separate Requests for each group involved in the reorg/creation
whatever, but most people who run true votes seem to me to want to be really
fair and do a good job, and I think the extra work would be worth it to make
sure everyone who wants to has the opportunity to vote...especially when many
people don't bother to vote anyway.  [I mean of course replacing "rec.games.
frp.*" with whatever group the vote is being announced in].

Just a couple more of my cents.  I'm not gonna have any left and I didn't
have that many to start with <grin>.
				Laura Mollett


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