Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: A USENet domain (was Re: Domain Charters)
Message-ID: <15215@bfmny0.UU.NET>
Date: 28 Feb 90 14:43:38 GMT
References: <_.W1K12xds8@ficc.uu.net> <1990Feb23.202301.3363@everexn.uucp> <38951@apple.Apple.COM> <11012@saturn.ADS.COM> <38983@apple.Apple.COM> <103276@looking.on.ca> <15208@bfmny0.UU.NET> <103905@looking.on.ca>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff)
Lines: 23

If you have ever read a message posted to the wrong group you may get a
hint why naming is important.  People involved in naming debates at the
time of newsgroup creation sometimes act as if any name whatsoever would
do -- what's the problem, after all WE know what we're talking about,
right?  The problem is that after the group's created and the smart
people who created it drift off somewhere else to do other things with
their lives, the well- or poorly-named group sticks around for OTHER
people to discover.  If the name doesn't tell a NEW person what belongs
there, he'll go post it to misc.misc or comp.lang.c or whatever newsgroup
he happens to be reading at the moment.

This is true for hierarchies as well as 'leaf' groupnames.  The name
structure of the net should concisely and accurately reflect the
branches of knowledge, inquiry and activity it supports.  Precisely to
the extent that it DOESN'T do so, pointless flaming and name debates and
grousing fill the net.  So it's important to keep these things in mind.

It's also important for confirmed net addicts like Brad and myself to
remember the needs of LESS addicted users.  Of course *we* could get
good use out of the net regardless of *how* poorly or weirdly it was
structured.  But that's no excuse.  It's our responsibility to try and
make it as useful as possible to *all* those who need it, including
those less expert than ourselves.