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From: richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Charter of aquaria groups, was (Re: late votes for *.AQUARIA0
Message-ID: <23900@gryphon.COM>
Date: 28 Dec 89 00:44:12 GMT
References: <3181@cpoint.UUCP> <70VMJ@splut.conmicro.com> <37433@apple.Apple.COM> <23700@gryphon.COM> <759@wang.UUCP>
Reply-To: richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton)
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 50

In article <759@wang.UUCP> fitz@wang.UUCP (Tom Fitzgerald) writes:
>
>(I know I'm not Chuq, but this one's easy even for me.)  Here's what
>"should" happen, barring any fundamental change in human nature:
>
>Phase 1:
>
>The beginners post their questions to rec.aquaria and the experts, in
>a friendly fashion, help them out.  Deep wizardly discussions occur in
>sci.aquaria.

Right.

>Phase 2:
>
>The experts, getting tired of answering the same questions over and over
>again, and seeing that they're spending too much time reading news,
>unsubscribe to rec.aquaria and continue their discussions in sci.aquaria.
>The amateurs keep posting questions to rec.aquaria, but none of the
>experts are there to answer.  The few helpful responses are posted by
>other beginners, who turn out to be often wrong, resulting in many dead
>fish.

No. We're setting up a ``answers to frquesntly asked questions'' thingy.

>Phase 3:
>
>The beginners buy more fish and realize that the experts are all
>over in sci.aquaria, so post their questions there.  The experts still
>don't want to answer beginners' questions, and flame the beginners for
>posting in the wrong newsgroup.

No. I cannot predict what will happen in sci and rec.aquaria, but in 
almost 3 years of reading alt.aquaria I can not honestly remember any 
flames. Real wierd for a usenet group. Especially considering Oleg
and I post to it :-)

>Phase 4:
>
>Sci.aquaria now contains a large quantity of beginners' questions ad
>flames.  Those experts without lots of spare time unsubscribe to
>sci.aquaria because of the volume, and when they do post, say "Please
>e-mail responses because I don't follow this group".  In response, they
>get flamed.  Those beginners who still post to rec.aquaria get more
>dead fish.
>
>Phases 3 and 4 repeat indefinitely.  The only way out is to create a single
>fishy group, or to moderate sci.aquaria.

My what a pessimist. If no. 4 is a problem, we can think about moderation.