From: jy10033@ehsn11.cen.uiuc.edu (Joshua M Yelon)
Subject: A proposal for organizing comp.os.linux. [NEW-CHANNELS]
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 00:47:07 GMT

I notice that the discussion about splitting went away for no more than
two weeks after the last split-vote.

Face it: there _is_ too much traffic, and people will continue to say
so, as long as it continues to be true.  The evidence shows that people
are simply _not_ going to sit quietly and put up with this chaos, no
matter how many times we vote, and no matter how many times we beg for
peace.  That's the reality of the situation.

So, the situation stands: we either put up with both the flames and the
disorganization, or we do _something_.  Anything.  It doesn't have to be
a newsgroup-split.  Just so long as it helps to reduce the chaos here.

Here is my proposal: if we make it a habit of putting one or more of
the following strings (brackets included) in our message headers, then we
can use kill files as needed to sort out the messages:

        [680X0]         [KERNEL]          [SERIAL]
        [APPS]          [MCA]             [SEYON]
        [CONFIGS]       [MGR]             [SLIP]
        [DOC]           [MSDOS]           [SOUND]
        [FSF]           [NET]             [TAPE]
        [GCC]           [NEW-CHANNELS]    [TERM]
        [HAMS]          [NORMAL]          [UUCP]
        [INTERVIEWS]    [SCSI]            [X11]

The best thing about this proposal is that we don't need to vote on
it: _I_ am going to begin _today_.

- Josh

PS: for the uninitiated, those strings are the names of the mailing-list
channels.  New channels are added from time to time, as new topics come up,
so this choice of strings _will_ adapt itself to the current discussions.

PPS: a 'kill file' is a file you keep in your own directory, specifying
which messages you would like to read, and which you would like to ignore,
according to strings occuring in the subject line.  Most modern newsreaders
support some sort of kill-file.  I use 'nn', which allows you to kill
directly from the menu.  It's easy: ask a local guru.

PPPS: I've noticed that this classification system is less intrusive when
you put the bracketed classification at the end of the message header:


Newsgroup: comp.os.linux                        Articles: 868 (K-106) of 870/3

a.Joseph R. Pannon 17  Release .98 video problem [X11]
b.Rick Miller      11  >>C.O.L. ALREADY *HAS* SPLIT! GO SOAK YOUR HEAD [NORMAL]
c.Iain.Lea@anl433 104  A little linux xmas success story [NORMAL]
d.Peter MacDonald  51  >
e.Andy I. Liaw     29  Prob. with xdvi and installing xview3. Help!! [X11]
f.loser@clueless    7  >
g.Herbert Hum      11  using emacs in X [X11]
h.Michael Caro     22  PATCH and CONFIG files for InterViews [INTERVIEWS]
i M Stoutjesdijk   15  Auto mail send [NET][UUCP]
j.Greg Lee         87  overstuffed 3.5" floppy [NORMAL]
k.FRANK NEEDHAM    15  >>>X on Enhanced VGA! (almost) [X11]
l FRANK NEEDHAM    42  >>>
m.Peter MacDonald  12  a pointless post [NORMAL]
n.Eric Youngdale   24  Dying IDE disk drive. [NORMAL]
o.Frank T Lofaro  303  ALPHA PATCH (for 0.98.6 k<>y disk enhancements [KERNEL]
p.Damien P. Neil   21  Can X run with only 4 megs RAM? [X11]
q Bruce Jackson    22  >
r c60c-2gf@web-2d  27  Loopback Network question [NET]

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