Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!decwrl!ucbvax!ucdavis!iris!zerkle From: zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: CALL FOR LOCAL DISCUSSION: Split the c.s.a group more? Message-ID: <7809@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> Date: 11 Oct 90 07:42:26 GMT References: <1990Oct6.051722.7143@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Sender: usenet@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu Reply-To: zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle) Organization: U.C. Davis - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Lines: 188 In article <1990Oct6.051722.7143@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes: Here are my comments on the proposed splits of c.s.a. >announce -- moderated: FF-disks, digestified for-sale notes, meetings, > new products, shareware releases, uploads to archives, etc. YES! This would be very nice to have. Would it be ok for actual commercial enterprises to post stuff here? I think maybe so, so long as it is a new product, and not just some dealer trying to ditch a lemon of an A2000 while pretending to be a user. >reviews -- moderated, archived: where to put your formally written up > impressions of new stuff: hardware and soft- free, share, > or commercial -ware. Also, yes. This is (IMHO) the most important part about the computer groups on Usenet. I used this to decide which computer to buy. I used this to learn which compiler to choose (actually, I decided they were pretty much a toss-up). I don't know if this should be moderated or not, though. I think the responses to reviews are often as valuable as the reviews themselves. Perhaps the responses could go in comp.sys.amiga.review.d? >software -- commercial and other, other than games, to focus the > discussion; also one of two followup-to groups for the > reviews group discussions. Software pretty much fits into all the other groups, doesn't it? I mean, how can you talk about any use of the Amiga without talking about software? >hardware -- as is, but pull review stuff to reviews, so this is more > a where to buy, and chat group; also the other followup-to > discussion group for reviews. Yes. Keep it. >tech -- Discussing the interface between the programmer and the > delivered software (and possibly other tool level stuff > in common use, SKsh, Wshell, etc.) Yes, especially since I have to start programming my new machine soon (read "tonight"). >games -- talking about buying and playing games; games reviews stay > here, or go to reviews for archiving? Yes, but only so games discussions don't clutter up the other groups. A good subset of the "software" group. >education -- how to use the Amiga in a teaching environment. This would be nice, but I don't see any discussion of this in any of the current groups. Is this really necessary? >graphics -- graphics hacks, algorithims and serious stuff for the amiga. The programming I am about to start is a line-based graphics package, so I guess I have to vote yes. >video -- for the person with a plan, a lot of time, and a VCR. Not much interest myself, but this is one of the few areas the Amiga dominates, so yes. >music -- for the MIDI crowd and the composers among us. Isn't there already a group for electronic musicians? I think this would better go in some rec.music.whatever. Those folks don't care as much about the platform, so the discussions should not likely be Amy-specific. I'll have to vote no on this one. >multimedia -- how to get it all going together: we need more slots! Not a big topic yet, but it should be! Perhaps this group could help get things started. >verbal -- talking about spoken input and output No. The Amiga is not commonly used for recognition (no reason for this, though). There is only one text-to-speech for the Amiga, and there's not much to say about it. There's also not much to say about digitizing voice. Electronic speech technology IS a hot topic (I should know), but (like music), there's no reason to associate it with the Amiga. The algorithms and tricks used for this will work on any machine. >handicapped -- special focus on Amiga and the handicapped Again, why the Amiga? comp.handicapped would be much more appropriate. >productivity -- the Amiga as a tool to get other work done: CAD, DBMS, > WP, DTP, production video, Accounts Receivable, etc. Yes. This is a good division of the "software" category. >help -- I can't make xxx work with yyy; can someone tell me how? Beautiful idea. However, I have a feeling that this sort of thing will end up in the more specific area to which the question belongs. This groups would only really be useful if you crosspost to it. I have to vote "maybe". >futures -- trying to help Commodore plan the future (also nags and > rants, of course!) A group dedicated to Commodore? How many companies have groups dedicated to them? I'm not sure that this is an appropriate use of Usenet. Yes, I admit to occasionally giving (sometimes, er, _emphatic_) advice to CBM, but I don't think they deserve to get a whole group about their business activities. >misc -- I'm too lazy to figure out where to post this, so I'll > just put it here. ;-) The "c.s.a.talk" group. Yes, but only on the condition that c.s.a itself is not something you can post to. Consider also a different name. >unix -- sure to be needed very soon. Let's not put it up until it is actually out, ok? I could understand it being a group local to VaTech, but not worldwide -- yet. When it is commercially available, it would be 1derful. >services -- things done for and by Amiga owners. I don't get this one. Give an example of what would happen here. >vendors -- praise and horror stories. Is there really a need for this group? It doesn't look like something that needs to be glued to the Amiga. Obviously, my "votes" aren't official. However, I do agree that c.s.a needs to be broken up. There is just too much traffic to follow it all, and I'm only interested in about half of it anyway. Part of the traffic to c.s.a.tech could be very justifiably diverted to a c.s.a.programmer. Part of the traffic on c.s.a.hardware could go to c.s.a.peripherals. The problems could be partially ameliorated by actually cutting down the traffic, instead of simply dividing it up. Most users are very good, but a few generate traffic that does not contribute to the general well-being. Unfortunately, there seems to be a need for a comp.sys.amiga.flamealltheothercomputersyoucan. When will people wake up and realize that different computers almost all have their own virtues? The "send me e-mail about it, too" message is my favorite useless message that shouldn't be posted. (send mail to the person who first requested help and ask for a summary, instead). A lot of people don't seem to understand that you can cut most of the quoted text when you put up a response, and this leads to traffic in the form of uselessly large individual messages. A certain educational salesman is particularly bad in this respect. On this same note, some people have signatures that are much too long. True, I CAN ignore them, but they still take up modem time and disk space. Keep it down to 4 lines, max. Then there is the perennial piracy debate that everybody has already heard. I wish that one would die down permanently. This gives me another idea. While the general Usenet has a new users area with basic introductions & such, there is no formal policy for periodic postings & such. Periodic postings could go up along the lines of: Introduction to the various comp.sys.amiga groups (restructured or not). Answers to common questions that always seem to come up. These are things like: "What is ftp and how do I use it?" "Is his last name Fish in real life?" "What are all the niggling details about adding RAM on the 3000?" "What do I have to do to get v2.0 of the OS to run on my 500?" "What's the difference between the assorted models of Amigas?" A formal and hopefully complete list of ftp sites A list of programs that do and do not run on a hard drive/A3000/2.0. A better list of how to post on these groups and what mistakes to avoid. I just put up a quickie. A formal document could be much better. I'd better stop here. I'm generating too much traffic. ;) Dan Zerkle zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (916) 754-0240 Amiga... Because life is too short for boring computers.