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From: taber@ultnix.enet.dec.com (Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds,news.groups
Subject: Re: RFD: comp.sys.handhelds.hp48
Message-ID: <4839@ryn.mro4.dec.com>
Date: 15 May 91 17:41:49 GMT
References: <7498@rex.cs.tulane.edu>
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Reply-To: taber@ultnix.enet.dec.com (Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber)
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Organization: KC1TD@KB4N.NH.USA.NA.EARTH.SOLAR_SYSTEM.UNIVERSE.MIND_OF_GOD.01463
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I hope you don't mind -- I'm going to re-arrange your points for
discussion's sake.

In article <7498@rex.cs.tulane.edu>, mandel@vax.anes.tulane.edu (Jeff E
Mandel MD MS) writes:

|>2) I believe that it will be impossible to understand what other machines,
|>architectures, or broad classes of machines need to have new groups until we
|>have dealt with the volume of HP48 traffic. No one can contest the fact that
|>the major volume of postings to this group over the last year have been HP48;
|>that a significant portion of the readership of this group have as their main
|>interest HP48 issues, and that anyone who is not interested in the HP48 has a
|>hard time in this group.

OK, so what you're saying is that of the handhelds in
comp.sys.handhelds, the HP48 owners/users/readers are the majority, at
least in terms of posting.  Is that right?

|>
|>1) Despite the strongly held views of some that there is a common interest
|>amongst all HP calculator users, there has not been a groundswell of
|>HP28, 41,
|>etc. users saying that they need to be in with the HP48 users. Having
|>previously attempted to get support for .hp2848, and having failed, I
|>believe
|>that this is not the option most likely to satisfy the majority. 

Nor have we seen evidence that the HP28, 41, etc. "need to be" removed
from discussions on the HP48.  On that, we have to take your word,
mostly, since when you tried "to get support for .hp2848" you solicited
responses by private mail and discouraged public responses.  YOU made
the decision that there was no support, apparently based on this private
correspondance.  There was little or no discussion in the public view. 
This, I believe, is improper procedure in creating a newsgroup.

|>3) I know that the HP95 is a new hot interest, and we may need a group for it
|>some day, but to do so now is premature. There is not another machine whose
|>volume of traffic has even come close to the level where a news group of its
|>own is warranted.
|>

I would agree if you stipulate that neither has the HP48 acheived the
volume of traffic where it needs its own group.  But since you don't
seem to yeild that point, then perhaps you can specify when a particular
calculator needs to be shunted into a separate group and when it should
be brought back. (Because when the HP41 and the HP28 were the hot
calculators, they caused quite a bit of traffic.  But now they seem to
meet your metric for staying within c.s.h.  When does the HP48 get
absorbed back?)

|>I am sorry that the majority of you are having to read so many rehashings of
|>harrangues from the last discussion, but unfortunately there are those
|>who have
|>deemed it necessary. Aside from the HP IR printer issue (which
|>probably can be
|>resolved by application of common sense), are there any compelling
|>reasons why
|>an HP48-only group will cause problems now?

I'm sorry that people have to put up with this again too.  I wasn't the
one who messed up the creation guidelines.  But since it's back in the
discussion stage, I think it's important to (again) push for the idea to
fail.  And if it can't fail, then at least it should be something more
elegant than pushing the HP48 into a separate group.

I wholeheartedly support a moderated source group for HP48 code.
I half-heartedly support a group for HP calculators as a class.
I sincerely question the wisdom of a group for HP48's only.

--
                                             >>>==>PStJTT
                                     Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber, KC1TD

"Nerd" is so demeaning, I prefer "fashion-impared."