Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!bigsur!bnr-rsc!bcarh181!schow
From: schow@bcarh181.bnr.ca (Stanley T.H. Chow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: CALL FOR DISCUSSION ON NEW GROUP
Message-ID: <4040@bnr-rsc.UUCP>
Date: 20 Feb 91 21:11:12 GMT
References: <6420@idunno.Princeton.EDU> <4019@ryn.mro4.dec.com>
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Reply-To: bqneh3!schow@bnr-rsc.UUCP (Stanley T.H. Chow)
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In article <4019@ryn.mro4.dec.com> taber@ultnix.enet.dec.com (Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber) writes:
>
>Offhand, I don't think a split is going to help anyone.  I've been
>reading the group for years and there's never been much non-HP traffic. 
>It's not that anything is done to prevent it.

It would help me. I think I am one of the persistant people who is willing
to wade through lots of articles to read the few of interest to me. There is
very likely a chicken and egg loop here - new people see this group is
dominated by HP stuff, so they leave, so there is very little non-HP stuff
posted.

>
>On the other hand, if the split happens, I don't think it's going to
>hurt much either.  I'd expect c.s.h to have little  traffic (except
>cross-posts from c.s.h.hp) and c.s.h.hp to have the same traffic load. 
>I think the resistance is mostly people feeling that since hp traffic
>has kept the group alive all this time, it's pretty cold for a minority
>to try and push *us* out.

I guess that feeling is there. My concern is that there be a split, the
actually names are of little concern to me. But having seen the debates
on some group creation/renaming discussion, I am willing to bet that a
large number of net.guru will pontificate on the benifits of a consistent
netwide naming convention.

Surely people are not emotionally attached to the actual name of these
groups! The names are merely shorthand for what is discussed in the
groups. There is no prestige in being higher or lower in the structure.

>
>Overall, my only concern is that if there aren't enough cross-posts to
>c.s.h, it might go away and if there are enough to keep it alive, it
>will be duplicating c.s.h.hp.  For me to vote "yes" on splitting the
>group, I'd have to see numbers that show non-hp postings account for
>enough volume to sustain a newsgroup. For that matter, since there have
>to be 100 more "Yes" votes than "no" votes, I'd be interested to see if
>non-hp posters amounted to 100 warm bodies.

I don't know about "posters", but I think there must be more than 100
"readers". In any case, this is exactly what the vote will determine.

Stanley Chow        BitNet:  schow@BNR.CA
BNR		    UUCP:    ..!uunet!bnrgate!bcarh185!schow
(613) 763-2831               ..!psuvax1!BNR.CA.bitnet!schow
Me? Represent other people? Don't make them laugh so hard.