Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU!mouse
From: mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re:  splitting up comp.windows.x
Message-ID: <9008172221.AA21929@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 17 Aug 90 22:21:32 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 36

> Since this board has so much traffic, has anybody thought about
> splitting it up into several boards.

Is that a question or a statement?

> I was thinking that possible boards are comp.windows.x.xlib,
> comp.windows.x.xt, comp.windows.x.misc, comp.windows.x.xaw, [etc].

This has been suggested in the past.  The major problem, as I
understand it, is that comp.windows.x is not just comp.windows.x; it is
also a mailing list called xpert.  And the people who run the mailing
list - primarily Consortium staff - are not interested in maintaining
many mailing lists.  (If this is not true, I'm sure someone from the
Consortium will feel free to correct me!)  So the alternatives are few:

	- what we have now
	- many newsgroups, none of them gatewayed with xpert
	- many newsgroups, one of them gatewayed with xpert
	- many newsgroups, with some person sorting out xpert messages
		and putting them in the appropriate newsgroup(s)

Clearly the last would be the best, but who wants to be the "some
person"?  It's pretty clearly a thankless job.  The second is not too
great; each side of the split loses the expertise of the other side.
The third is not good; netnews will see many articles in inappropriate
groups, creating much flamage of innocent posters to xpert, and the
non-gatewayed groups will probably die out for lack of postings - and
then we're right back where we started.

About all the first has to recommend it is that it's in place, its
faults and benefits are known, and it mostly works.

					der Mouse

			old: mcgill-vision!mouse
			new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu