Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!brl-adm!seismo!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!ghoti# From: ghoti#@andrew.cmu.edu.UUCP Newsgroups: news.groups,comp.misc Subject: Re: mod.newsgroup-overview - a new group... Message-ID: Date: Wed, 11-Feb-87 22:01:50 EST Article-I.D.: andrew.wUAHgSy00jaFA=A21s Posted: Wed Feb 11 22:01:50 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 12-Feb-87 23:03:56 EST Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University Lines: 73 Xref: utgpu news.groups:339 comp.misc:209 ReSent-Date: Wed, 11 Feb 87 22:02:58 est ReSent-From: postman#@andrew.cmu.edu ReSent-To: nntp-xmit#@andrew.cmu.edu Return-path: X-Trace: MS Version 3.21 on ibm032 host quakertown, by ghoti (602). To: outnews#ext.nn.news.groups@andrew.cmu.edu, outnews#ext.nn.comp.misc@andrew.cmu.edu In-Reply-To: <1263@hplabsc.UUCP> [Kind-of-long.....Sorry] > taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor) writes..... > .... > In a nutshell, we're proposing the creation of a new newsgroup called > something like "mod.newsgroup-overview" (or, if we can skip the > 'mod' prefix, something like "news.groups-overview") which would be > one of the 'automatically subscribed to' groups in the various news > reading software. > .... I am not a moderator, nor am I hoping to become one, but as a bboard system maintainer at a university (at which we receive over 400 bboards from the internet and usenet combined), I've noticed a feature on the internet which is not quite as well suported on the usenet bboards - the list-of-lists. It seems to me that if you take Dave Taylor's idea and modify it a bit you might be able to accomplish something even better than the originally planned idea (obviously, this is my opinion so far:-). SO: I propose the following as an adaptaion: [Initial set-up] The Moderator collects informational paragraphs from as many of the news-group maintainers as he can, and arranges them alphabetically in a file ---allow say about a month to compile the initial post. [First Post] This information which has been collected/organized is then posted at the begining of the next month (i.e. if it is ready by Feb 23, post it on March 1). [Upkeep] All news-group maintainers are invited to update their entry and/or submit their initial entry for this list at any time. The Moderator will take care of replacing out-dated information with new information, and can optionally post the updates seperately as they come in (Moderators choice at this point, I don't think it would be worth it, but I could be wrong). The Moderator should probably try to summarize the changes at the top of the file for example: CHANGES SINCE 2/1/87 POSTING: mod.squad --> New group news.room --> Deleted group net.foo --> Renamed --> comp.foo talk.alot --> New Description -------------------------- Individual Descriptions Follow ------------------------- At the begining of every month, the file is reposted - the summary at the top will allow you to quickly notice whether something has changed with respect to one of the groups you read or used to read, and will also inform you of new news-groups starting up that might interest you. There are still issues to be played with: Name of the news-group, Are intermediary updates sent out, or just monthly (maybe even bi-monthly if things seem to stay stable for lengths at a time) Format Terminology used in Summary Time required of Moderator to keep this reasonably upto-date (i.e. it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to insert or replace an entry) What opportunity is there for automation (and how much should be used) End of idea. I think it sounds reasonable, but i am not as involved with usenet operations as you are - what do you think? --fish (Adam Stoller )