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From: andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.news.group
Subject: Re: How about a temporary net.libya?
Message-ID: <940@kuling.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-May-86 20:37:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: kuling.940
Posted: Mon May 12 20:37:31 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 15-May-86 06:11:40 EDT
References: <3614@sun.uucp> <2332@phri.UUCP> <243@oucs.UUCP> <311@cad.UUCP>
Reply-To: andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson)
Distribution: net
Organization: Uppsala University, Sweden
Lines: 36
Xref: linus net.followup:5324 net.news.group:4823

In article <311@cad.UUCP> hijab@cad.UUCP writes:
>The discussion on Libya covers a current event of considerable interest
>to many net.people. There is great concern about the impact of the
>Libyan raid, its efficacy and repercussions. I do not think it is right
>to try to deligitimize the discussion. Hitting the "n" key should not
>be all that traumatic for those so inclined.

I don't think it matters how "important" an issue is. Even if the entire
user community agreed on the importance of the Libyan air raid, what's
wrong with important discussions in net.politics (or any other newsgroup
covering the more precise subject)? The "considerable interest to many
net.people" should be compared to the non-interest of all the others.
I've got the impression that there are tens of thousands of net readers
out there, and so far only a relatively diminutive minority has actively
participated in the current "discussion".

To sort out the material I want, I've subscribed to subject-specific groups.
As I'm also interested in various issues not covered by specific groups, I've
subscribed to net.general (and net.followup), as that's where such issues are
likely to appear. This probably goes true (in theory) for most users of a
communication system like this, which means *nobody* has the ability to
unsubscribe with the argument "I'm not interested in this particular topic",
simply because net.general has no single topic, but rather any topic.

Thus, anything recognizable as belonging to a specific area of interest
should be put in the proper newsgroup, and not in net.general. People
interested in the subject may easily continue the discussion there (with
the exception for non-worldwide newsgroups, but that's another problem).

The (somewhat) hierarchical structure of newsgroups is there to assist users
in their search for useful/intersting items. If hitting the "n" key is the
solution to this problem, why do we then have separate newsgroups at all?
-- 
Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University, Sweden
Phone: +46 18 183170
UUCP: andersa@kuling.UUCP (...!{seismo,mcvax}!enea!kuling!andersa)