Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxn.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxj!mhuxl!mhuxm!pyuxi!pyuxn!rlr
From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: net.music.jazz and subgroups in general
Message-ID: <138@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Aug-83 14:44:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.138
Posted: Thu Aug 18 14:44:30 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Aug-83 04:33:43 EDT
References: <557@cvl.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Piscataway
Lines: 39

I should clarify some of my positions on the proliferation of subgroups.

First, though I oppose having subgroups for every subsubtopic of every
area of (sub-)interest, I am not proposing that we submit everything to
net.general!!  There is a valid middle ground.  We need individual
distinctions for topics like tv (television viewers) and video (those
interested in video technology, et al), religion (systems of worship)
and philosophy (systems of non-religious belief), etc.  We need broad
categories like music, movies, unix-*, micro, etc. to distinguish and
clarify to potential readers what we are talking about.  But we don't
need a subgroup for every piddling subtopic that comes along, even if
it has a large (though in the minority) following.

Second, I prefer the concept of keywords to the concept of newsgroups.
Newsgroups tend to polarize and box us in, to pigeonhole our discussion.
Instead of a list of 'groups' that one wants/doesn't want to see, how
about a list of keywords.  Some people might have in their keyword list:
"music !rock".  Thus an article keyworded as "music" would get through
this defensive barrier, but a "music rock" article would not, and these
people would be spared the agony of reading about rock singers biting
the heads off of flying rodents, et al.  (That's the only thing rock fans
talk about, right?  That and drugs. :-) )  A master keyword list (much
like the master newsgroup list) would provide news users with a list of
possible keywords to accept/reject in their .newsrc file.  General usage
would actually define acceptable keywords.  (If I had '!shoes' in my
.newsrc, and no one used that keyword, I wouldn't be rejecting many
articles.)  All the controversy over double posting is reduced to
nothing if an article on how to hook a video recorder to my television
while normally watching something else would have keywords 'tv video' in
it.  Anyone who doesn't care about video technology but watches a lot of
television might have 'tv !video' as part of his/her .newsrc file, and thus
miss this wondrous article.   I digress...

This was simply a restating of my previously espoused and described position
on subgroups.  It's a difficult area where sometimes it's justified and
more often it's not.  'micro' and 'music' are probably good examples where
it's not, while 'sport' and 'sport.baseball' (to me) are good examples where
it is.  Of course 'sport baseball !rollerball' would do the trick...
					Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr