Xref: utzoo comp.groupware:331 news.misc:5617 news.software.b:6083 Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!uunet!van-bc!jtc From: jtc@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca (J.T. Conklin) Newsgroups: comp.groupware,news.misc,news.software.b Subject: Addressing the needs of tommorow's USENET (was Re: Hidden history of comp.groupware) Summary: New tools make comp.groupware.f pointless, but what tools will be necessary to handle USENET traffic effectively in the future. Message-ID: <2960@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca> Date: 30 Oct 90 03:43:33 GMT References: <1990Oct26.182416.5863@daimi.aau.dk> Followup-To: news.misc,news.software.b Organization: UniFax Communications Inc., Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 33 In article tombre@crin.fr (Karl Tombre) writes: >This idea of having a comp.groupware.f companion group seems >especially strange to me as one of the few examples cited to justify >this, eunet.{general,followup} was just recently removed by voting >within the eunet community, and replaced by eunet.misc, due to the >complexity and inefficiency of having a discussion go from one group >to the other. The need for a proposal->followup scheme for unmoderated newsgroups seems to be diminished in this new age of threaded newsreaders. As news readers become better, the need will be eliminated entirely. Of course the case with a moderated "base" group and unmoderated discussion group is entirely different. With the proper tools, it is possible to easily navigate through threads of discussion. It is easy to jump to the parent article, ignore threads that get off topic, etc. In fact, breaking up newsgroups in this manner hurts this utility, as most newsreaders are not yet able to follow threads across newsgroup boundries. As USENET matures, I hope less emphasis is placed on technical issues (fast newsgroup processing, etc.) as they are relatively easy when compared to dealing with the human element. We really need tools that can be used to efficently distribute and extract information. Threaded newsreaders are only one small step in that direction. --jtc -- J.T. Conklin UniFax Communications Inc. ...!{uunet,ubc-cs}!van-bc!jtc, jtc@wimsey.bc.ca