Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!chuq From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Namespace Spring Cleaning -- not this year. Message-ID: <35493@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 9 Oct 89 18:12:16 GMT Organization: Life is just a Fantasy novel played for keeps Lines: 146 A couple of weeks ago I brought up the concept of a "name space spring cleaning" -- tweaking the name space to fix up those little glitches that occur and shift around groups that, based on content, got placed in the wrong place. I got a fair amount of positive feedback on the concept, but I've decided that right now it's not worth the inevitable fight -- the rec.aquaria vs. sci.aquaria issue has convinced me that (1) there is enough dissension over namespace conventions on the net to make any attempt at a minor renaming scheme a massive flamefest, (2) that I don't particularly want to be part of a massive flamefest right now, especially as point man, and (3) that, on reflection and research, there aren't any namespace issues I consider serious enough to start a major fight over. So I'm dropping it for now -- I think there are areas of the namespace that ought to be cleaned up, but on balance it's not worth doing at this point. Maybe later. Maybe not. Anyway, just for giggles, I'm attaching draft 0.9Alpha of the recommended changes. A few notes: The justifications haven't been written for any of the proposed changes except the top-level domains. If someone really, really wants to know why I'm proposing something they can ask. Also, this is currently an "Everything I thought I might want to suggest" type document, including all of the changes I thought might be improvmenents; needless to say, I know of a number of things I'd been planning to remove from the proposal before officially releasing it; I left them in primarily for completeness and giggles. Finally, there are a number of non-official groups in the deletion list because the active file here at Apple isn't particularly up to date and I didn't reconcile it to an official list yet. Anyway, have fun looking to see if your favorite group is on the hit list. Maybe next time. chuq --- Top-level organization: Rename the "news.*" top-level to "netnews.*". There has been a continuing problem with the ambiguity of the name "news" -- the intention is to have netnews administration related groups, but people continually misintepret it as news-of-the-day. Rename the "sci.*" top-level to "tech.*" -- this would closer reflect reality and remove some of the dissension about how strictly to define the concept of 'sci'. There is no need for new top-level domains. Groups to create: rec.birds (rec.birds.watching) rec.birds (rec.pets.birds) Groups to rename: old name (new name) comp.dcom.telecom (misc.telecom) comp.lang.sigplan (comp.org.acm.sigplan) comp.laser-printers (comp.periphs.printers [unmoderated]) comp.mail.maps (netnews.maps) comp.music (rec.music.computers) comp.newprod (biz.newprod) comp.realtime (comp.os.realtime) comp.society (soc.computers) comp.society.futures (soc.futures) comp.society.women (soc.women.computing) news.lists (netnews.announce.lists) news.sysadmin (comp.os.sysadmin) rec.arts.int-fiction (reg.games.int-fiction) rec.arts.wobegon (rec.radio.npr) rec.ham-radio (rec.radio.amateur) rec.ham-radio.packet (rec.radio.amateur.packet) rec.ham-radio.swap (rec.radio.amateur.swap) sci.economics (soc.economics [misc.economics?] sci.edu (soc.edu) sci.environment (sco.environment) sci.lang (soc.culture.english) sci.lang.japan (soc.culture.japan) sci.philosophy.* (soc.philosophy.*) sci.skeptic (soc.skeptic) Group Deletions: ([[[under construction!]]]) comp.ai.digest comp.ai.edu comp.ai.nlang-know-rep comp.ai.shells comp.ai.vision comp.archives comp.bugs.2bsd comp.dcom.lans.hyperchannel comp.dcom.lans.v2lni comp.doc comp.doc.techreports comp.edu comp.edu.composition comp.graphics.digest comp.lang.clu comp.lang.forth.mac comp.lang.idl comp.lang.rexx comp.lang.scheme.c comp.lang.visual comp.mail.headers comp.os.cpm.amethyst comp.os.eunice comp.os.v comp.protocols.kermit comp.protocols.pcnet comp.protocols.pup comp.std.internat comp.std.mumps comp.sys.cdc comp.sys.celerity comp.sys.intergraph comp.sys.m68k comp.sys.m68k.pc comp.sys.masscomp comp.sys.northstar comp.sys.nsc.32k comp.sys.proteon comp.sys.ridge comp.sys.tahoe comp.sys.workstations comp.terminals.bitgraph comp.theory.info-retrieval comp.theory.self-org-sys news.newsites rec.games.rpg rec.games.vectrex rec.music.reviews sci.philosophy.meta sci.physics.fusion soc.human-nets soc.politics soc.politics.arm-d soc.politics.arms-d soc.rights.alien soc.singles.nice -- Chuq Von Rospach <+> Editor,OtherRealms <+> Member SFWA/ASFA chuq@apple.com <+> CI$: 73317,635 <+> [This is myself speaking] Future home of the San Jose Photons! I was a Kings fan before it was politically correct. NHL to San Jose!