Path: utzoo!telly!philmtl!atha!aunro!myrias!uunet!bu-cs!lll-winken!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!bbn!news From: news@bbn.COM (News system owner ID) Newsgroups: gnu.config Subject: Re: Purpose Message-ID: <48457@bbn.COM> Date: 18 Nov 89 16:46:45 GMT References: <8911150658.AA00254@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> <1989Nov16.142657.11437@talos.uucp> Reply-To: pplacewa@capella.bbn.com (Paul W Placeway) Distribution: gnu Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 41 kjones@talos.uu.net writes: < rms@AI.MIT.EDU writes: < > The principal purpose of info-gnu-emacs (a.k.a. gnu.emacs) is to < > convey announcements and polls on behalf of the GNU project to the < > users of GNU Emacs. < > [...] < > In other words, not for discussions and not for asking for help. < < I think the name gnu.emacs is very mislading to the typical USENET < reader. I know that gnu.* != USENET, but the difference is not readily < apparent to newcomers (slag? :-)). The typical reader sees comp.emacs, < and assumes gnu.emacs is the saem type of forum. This is a reasonable < assumption, even though it is incorrect. I agree also. I think that the fundimental problem with gnu.* is that because of the way it is set up, it looks to Useneters as a set of news groups that _happen_ to be relayed to mailing lists (for people who are stuck in the backwatters for reasons of home machine type or personal prefrence). In this case, it doesn't matter if people say over and over "Gnu isn't Usenet" -- if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, flies like a duck, etc. then IT MUST BE A DUCK. Because of this, much like alt.*, gnu.* IS (de facto) part of Usenet. (This is one of those logical falacy but fact of life sort of things.) Further, because people _use_ gnu.emacs to ask for help and disscuss Gnu Emacs, there is obviously a need for this type of forum. The advantage to gnu.emacs for this is that one is sure that the topic is _Gnu_ Emacs (and hence Gnu Emacs Lisp), rather than Gosling (Unipress), CCA, Micro-, mg, MINCE, JOVE, ad nauseum. Therefore, if you want a mailing list relay, make it _obviously_ a mailing list relay: make it quasi-moderated (moderator = mailing list relay alias), and put mailing list noise at the beginning or end of the articles. Produce an object that looks like a hammer and someone will use it for a hammer... -- Paul Placeway