Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!tekig!tekig5!danm
From: danm@tekig5.TEK.COM (Daniel Milliron)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: An alternate method of splitting high volume groups
Message-ID: <2347@tekig5.TEK.COM>
Date: 18 Jan 88 18:50:21 GMT
References: <22603@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 20

In article <22603@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) writes:
> 
> The idea is to not view newsgroups as "barriers" between discussions, but
> as "keywords" to indicate topics of interest. The general idea is to think
> of what groups you're interested in a posting being read by, then post to
> the most specific newsgroup that will reach part of that group.
>   .
>   .
>   .
> Etc, etc, etc. The more the merrier. Cross-posting is to be *encouraged*.

I see one obvious and one subtle disadvantage to the idea of splintering
newsgroups to atomic levels.  The obvious one is the cost of extra disk space
to store redundant material.  The subtle one is that a reader who wants to
follow all discussions on a general topic (e.g. the Macintosh) will subscribe
to all the splinter groups and therefore see the same article many times.  That
means wasted time while reading the news.  Unless there is a way to filter out
already-read articles.

Dan Milliron@Tektronix