From: bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig)
Subject: Re: Divide this Group
Date: Mon, 07 Sep 92 07:52:36 GMT
Organization: Starfleet Headquarters: San Francisco

rjung@aludra.usc.edu (Robert A. Jung) wrote (in article <lalukhINN2m4@aludra.usc.edu>):
>In article <1992Sep06.234909.10031@r-node.gts.org> singh@r-node.gts.org (Rajendra Singh) writes:
>>I have a suggestion (I don't know if it has been suggested already).  Why
>>don't we divide this group into:
>>	rec.games.video.genesis        [etc.]
>
>        (1) Some people LIKE to read about every game system out there.
>        The biggest incentive for a by-system split is so owners of machine
>        A don't have to read about news for machine B. Wouldn't a kill file
>        be sufficient?

Well, I'm interested in Atari Lynx and Super Nintendo news, and I
couldn't care less about the Genesis or Neo-Geo or others (and I don't
even own a SNES (yet)).

A killfile isn't useful unless everyone includes the name of a system
in the title of their post, is it?  I like the idea of split
newsgroups -- if somebody wants to read about all the systems, he
could subscribe to all the videogame newsgroups.

(Heck, could you imagine the chaos if they'd left comp.sys.mac and
c.s.ibm and c.s.amiga all under "comp.sys", and never broken them down? ;)

>        (2) The USENET gods don't like creating "popular theme of the year"
>        newsgroups (hence no rec.arts.tv.ren-n-stimpy). Let's face the
>        music: neither the Genesis nor the SNES will be around in ten years'
>        time, and by then rec.arts.video.snes will be a wasted subdirectory.
>        Why create a newsgroup with a known limited lifespan?

Well, we could create alt groups; alt.games.lynx already exists...

Besides, ten years is an awfully long time -- and look at the number
of Atari 2600 postings that still come through here!  Look even at
newsgroups like comp.sys.cbm that still putter along.  If after five
years a system has _completely_ died out, then the newsgroup can be
rmgroup'ed, easy as pie.

>  Again, the only incentive the pro-by-system-split folks can ever give is
>that "it's convenient for me". Given the arguments against, this seems (IMO)
>a little petty.

Hmm?  Convenience is a Good Thing, imo.  ;) And besides, wouldn't a
r.g.v split help people get to only the news about systems they want
to read about, while not increasing the network load nor
inconveniencing anyone?

(And besides, computers are supposed to make our lives easier and more
convenient! ;)

>I can see the need for a function-oriented split, like rec.games.video.hints
>and/or rec.games.video.sales; no matter what machines come and go, they will
>always have functional use. However, nobody seems really supportive of such
>a move. Ah well.

I wouldn't support that breakdown because I want to know everything
that goes on about the Atari Lynx, say, but I don't care about the
Sega Genesis.  A hints/sales split would make me keep subscribing to
both newsgroups, while a lynx/genesis split would let me ignore one of
the newsgroups.

Am I missing something here, or it it not really a big thing to just
create a bunch of alt groups for the various systems and use them
instead of r.g.v?

     << Brian >>

-- 
_/_/_/       Brian Kendig  Macintosh Jedi           Live never to be ashamed
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