From: wonge@fraser.sfu.ca (Edmund Wong)
Subject: Re: Reducing traffic on c.o.l.
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 04:39:47 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.072811.4066@athena.mit.edu> dthumim@athena.mit.edu (Daniel J Thumim) writes:
>I have almost gotten to the point where I can no longer keep up with c.o.l.,
>even though I want to.  As the group is *not* going to be split any time
>soon, I would like to suggest that we try instead to reduce the traffic in
>here!
>
>Probably the least interesting posts are newbie questions and please for
>help.  Perhaps we can cut down on these by setting up separate help forums,

     I too am having some time keeping up with c.o.l., but HOWEVER,
I don't think you realize the extent of what you said, with all due
respects of course.   "Probably the least interesting posts are newbie.."?
Do no forget that you too was a newbie once, so just because you know
how to fiddle with Linux, it doesn't mean that newbies can be ignored.
Come on.   Would you have felt that way, if you are a newbie and someone
suggested that newbies should go somewhere separate?  This is where most
newbies look, and if you say that they should look elsewhere, I don't think
that's being fair.   Sure it may help to have a separate forum, but 
quite frankly, I don't think any Linux Gurus/Pros/Wizards would sit in
front of the terminal, reading each newbie question in the other 
"help forums", when each newbie question can be answered by reading 
the FAQ.    

    Maybe I'm just a bit outta line here, as I'm also what you can 
label as a 'newbie'; but I can empathize with you AND the newbies.
  

>and *advertising* them, here, in the [meta-]faq, with linux distributions,
>in the form of instructions for getting help... with posting to c.o.l.
>listed as a last resort only!  Such forums already exist for many people,
>by contacting other local users, irc, etc.  Maybe we could also set up a
>separate alt.* newsgroup, or a mailing list or something that will serve
>as a "help line".  Maybe lots of small, local help line mailing lists.

    That could help though, I mean, by having a mailing list.  Having
a separate alt.* newsgroup, I don't know.  Most of the newbie questions
that I've read, and (a few posted as well by me :>) are in the FAQ,
so having a separate Alt.* newsgroup (or whatever newsgroup) will
waste certain site's money.   I mean, like would an Internet site
even bother about another area when it's filled with questions which
are answered in the FAQ?  I don't think so.
 
>
>Of course, there is also the issue of keeping things that don't belong out
>of the group...for example, the whole "linux v. coherent" discussion should
>have been somewhere else, like comp.unix.pc-clone or whatever it's called.

    I don't know.  Considering it does have something to do with Linux
and it's operatives, so I think that kinda discussion COULD be discussed
on c.o.l., but hey, it's my $0.02 worth, anyway.

>Also, I sometimes see followups that could very well have gone by email.
>And maybe we can also cut down on messages without content?  Some humor is
>good, but not when somebody posts a long quotation of someone else and
>adds some one-liner, with nothing else!  People should realize how many
>other people's time they are wasting... and they may be pushing some people
>over the edge to decide that they can't keep up with the volume in here.
>Please, people, think before posting!

   Hear, Hear.  Now that, I totally agree with.  Those kinds of messages
do waste the bandwidth.

   But how about these?  Don't these messages waste bandwidth, or is
it considered as a healthy discussion for the benefit of this newsgroup?


PS: No offense implied/inferred/explicitly stated.  Just merely
    stating my p.o.v.



-- 
InterNet: wonge@fraser.sfu.ca  |  "Fail not; Learn Not.
                               |  It is with failing, that one learns,
                               |  So by Learning, one must fail." - Edmund Wong
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux