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From: lenoil@mit-eddie.UUCP (Robert Scott Lenoil)
Newsgroups: net.news.group,net.news.adm
Subject: Re: New Group Needed
Message-ID: <540@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-Nov-85 14:39:50 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.540
Posted: Fri Nov 22 14:39:50 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Nov-85 04:30:27 EST
References: <622@tekigm.UUCP>
Reply-To: lenoil@mit-eddie.UUCP (Robert Lenoil)
Followup-To: net.news.group
Distribution: net
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 41
Xref: watmath net.news.group:4669 net.news.adm:437

In article <622@tekigm.UUCP> aegroup@tekigm.UUCP (Dennis Ward) writes:
>
>
>Several new groups are needed and several old groups should be renamed:
>
>net.micro.cbm   should be net.micro.cbm8  for Commodore 8 bit machines
>net.micro.amiga should be net.micro.cbm16 for Commodore 16 bit machines
>net.micro.atari should be split into
>			  net.micro.atari8 for Atari 8 bit machines
>			  net.micro.atari16 for Atari 16 bit machines
>
>Similarly if either Commodore or Atari come out with 32 bit machines, then new
>subgroups could be established.  ST and Amiga are too specific names, a more
>general generic name should be established so that if Atari or Commodore come
>out with new 16 bit machines with different names, the catagories would still
>be appropriate.

Why rename a newsgroup simply for the sake of renaming it?  Net.micro.cbm has
had its name for years.  Its traffic has been steadily decreasing, especially
with the introduction of net.micro.amiga.  Commodore only has one 16 bit
machine, namely the amiga (excepting its Z8000 thingy and its PC compatible,
which aren't sold in the US, and hence have not been the subject of any
discussion in these newsgroups), so renaming net.micro.amiga to net.micro.
anything-else would be misleading and stupid (especially since ~.amiga is
already too highly trafficked to support discussion of another machine.

To summarize (for the Commodore newsgroups, I don't know about Atari):

* net.micro.cbm currently only discusses the Commodore 64, with occasional
  articles on the Commodore 128.
* net.micro.amiga only discusses the Commodore Amiga, and could absolutely
  not support any more machines.

Therefore, renaming these newsgroups to more generic names (e.g. net.micro.
cbm{8,16}) would not serve any useful purpose.  I'd be willing to bet that
the same is true for the Atari newsgroups as well.  It sounds to me like
Dennis Ward is a programmer that just learned about abstraction, and wants
to apply it to every facet of living.

Robert Lenoil
{ihnp4,allegra,harvard,decvax!genrad}!mit-eddie!lenoil