Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU!rws
From: rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Newsgroup Split
Message-ID: <8912222144.AA19242@expire.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 89 21:44:14 GMT
References: <1989Dec22.203641.6471@relay.nswc.navy.mil>
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 45


    What do you think news is for?

News is for people that *like* to have their From: line be an unintelligible
spew of gibberish.  [For example,
    From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ark1!ophiuchi!dsill@think.com  (Dave Sill)
instead of
    From: dsill@relay.nswc.navy.mil
What a wonderfully useless thing this is in the Internet.]

    Do you really prefer mailing lists to news?

I prefer to read my mail with one interface (xmh).  Most Consortium business
is conducted with mailing lists, and xpert is only a small part of my daily
business.

    Have you ever used xrn?

No.  The last thing I need is multiple interfaces for mail.

    Do you *really* enjoy having to maintain the mailing list?

Of course not.  But Usenet is not the entire world.

    What percentage of xpert/comp.windows.x users receive it by mail?

We have about 200 entries on our xpert list, most of them redistributions.
I have no idea how many people that translates to, or what the relative
percentages are.  I think I'm safe in saying that most of the entries on
xpert are there because news is not a reasonable option for them.

    I'd suspect that the percentage for readers would be about the same.

I'd say there's no basis for a calculation.

    I can't help
    but feel like they're doing us a disservice by not responding to the
    repeated calls to segregate the group.

Gee, remind me again who pays my salary, and why?  But seriously, if we
thought there was anything approaching consensus out there on how to split
things up in a reasonable way to a small number of lists, we'd probably cave
in.  And as I suggested, there's really nothing stopping people from voting
in the creation of whatever newgroup subdivision is desired, if you don't
mind xpert broadcasting over them, or having them unread by Consortium staff.