Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!bloom-beacon!snorkelwacker!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!chuq From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Re: Splitting Comp.Sys.Mac again (was Re: Too many messages in ....) Message-ID: <38392@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 7 Feb 90 00:50:30 GMT References: <629@ascom.UUCP> <38387@apple.Apple.COM> <1603@umigw.MIAMI.EDU> Organization: Fictional Reality: where your dreams can come true Lines: 114 In article <1603@umigw.MIAMI.EDU>, jpb@umbio.miami.edu (Joe Block) writes: > How about splitting it into .app, .startup (CDEVs & INITs), .os, .peripherals, > .das, .viruses, and .bugs? The problem is you don't want to just create groups -- if the groups aren't properly named (based on what people are talking about) they don't relieve the pressure (on apple.com, c.s.m seems to be about 100 messages a day) because they aren't used.... A few thoughts and some data on the possibility of splitting comp.sys.mac. The first thing I checked was to see what percentage of messages in c.s.m were cross-postings to other, existing c.s.m subgroups. If you look at the bottom of the message, you'll see the data, which shows it's a pretty small number. One other thing I looked at was whether people were using c.s.m *instead* of an existing sub-group. There seems to be a fair amount of this in the case of c.s.m.hardware (I don't have firm data on this, but scanning the subject lines showed a much larger number than the cross-posting would account for, but not enough for me to think it outrageous. Some education on this issue might help, but not enough to fix the overload in c.s.m. The bottom line (not surprising): c.s.m has outgrown itself again. It's not a case of excessive crossposting or not using the appropriate groups. Which implies that one or more groups are necessary to help split off some of the volume. Here's my first thoughts having gone through the last 30 dayts of comp.sys.mac. First, to create comp.sys.mac.misc, with the eventual idea of rmgrouping comp.sys.mac -- this will bring the c.s.m hierarchy into line with the 'standard' usenet naming scheme. Other sub-groups that came to mind while trying to sort and identify messages based on subject lines: comp.sys.mac.d -- discussions of mac and apple (editorializing, yelling about apple warranties, etc). .forsale -- intuitively obvious, I hope .futures -- talk about apple futures: System 7.0, Hypercard 2.0, what apple ought to be doing (as opposed to .d, where you yell at Apple for what it hasn't done). .os -- system software discussions .wanted -- a place to post requests for stuff or information. .applications -- talk about applications .inits -- talk about inits .interface -- talk about the MacOS interface, use/abuse. Obviously, some of these cross over somewhat (.d, .futures and .interface all seem to cover parts of current discussions, for instance). Others we might not want to encourage (.forsale). things like .inits I'm not convinced would have enough volume to really make a difference in c.s.m long-term (last time I looked, a large part of the traffic was about microsoft, this time, there's VERY little. my guess is the current discussions about INITs will likely wane in the same way). My preferences right now would be: comp.sys.mac.misc comp.sys.mac.d comp.sys.mac.wanted comp.sys.mac.futures and from there, I'm not sure I care or that it'd be work doing. Here's some random data that may or may not be interesting. 2377 messages 1375 replies (57%) 1136 different topics Topics with the most responses: #msgs subject line 42 Priority scheme for comp.sys.mac.binaries? 29 What I'd like to see in the AppleShare of the 90's 27 Low-Cost Macintosh 26 MacWorld's Phony Offers 25 A call for "3D look" (a la Next) interface guidelines from Apple 17 Macintosh Yellow Pages 16 Backup Utility Recommendations... 14 Rolex watch for sale 13 Windows 3.0: Coming of age 12 no 6.0.4 upgarde path 12 Mac only has 90-day warranty 12 Hiding background layers in MultiFinder 11 ShortCut vs. Boomerang: Opinions? 11 MIP rating for the Mac II 11 FastPath vs. GatorBox 11 Don't buy SuperLaserSpool (or anything from SuperMac) 11 ATM 10 Text file madness: diagnosis & prescription. 10 Changing Boot "Welcome" message 103 different cross-posting combinations [note: some duplicates, i.e. c.s.m,c.s.m.hardware and c.s.m.hw,c.s.m counted twice] 1136 messages not cross posted. Most common cross-postings (# cross-postings > 10) 94 comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.programmer 71 comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.hardware 43 comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac 13 comp.sys.mac,comp.protocols.appletalk 12 comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.hypercard -- Chuq Von Rospach <+> chuq@apple.com <+> [This is myself speaking] Rumour has it that Larry Wall, author of RN, is a finalist in the race for the Nobel Peace Prize for his invention of the kill file.