Re: The List As We Know It (off topic)
Andreas J. Koenig (koenig@anna.mind.de)
08 Nov 1997 12:37:00 +0100
>>>>> bugaj writes:
bugaj> My suggestion is that the list be split into libwww-help and libwww-maint,
bugaj> or something similar, and that some of the experts choose remain on libwww-help
bugaj> to be there for the newbies who may, perhaps, someday be comrades on
bugaj> libwww-maint if they can just get through their initial (few or slew of)
bugaj> problems with and questions about PERL and the library.
Too true. It has been demonstrated that it is extremely useful to let
*-user be a subset of the *-dev list on the zsh-user and zsh-dev
mailing lists. That is, *-dev is subscribed to *-user, so nobody has
to subscribe to two lists. Crossposting is plain useless.
- Users post to *-user, because they want the wider audience.
- Developers answer them on *-user because they answer a user question.
- Developers who have no time, ignore postings to *-user.
- Developers post to -dev, knowing that's their audience.
- Lurkers have the choice where to listen.
bugaj> I am aware that the
bugaj> more general list could become overrun and rendered ineffectual, so some
bugaj> guidelines could be set up for that list.
Sure, but if that happens, the only harm done on *-dev is the
bandwidth that ends in /dev/null via Randal's (or my ;-) mailagent.
bugaj> This would help keep the maintenance list on topic (off topic posts could be
bugaj> sent to the "help" or "general" or whatever-it-would-be-called sister list),
bugaj> and help the people coming to this list with programming questions get the
bugaj> assistance they need.
The trick here is that if *-dev is subscribed on *-user, then
off-topic posts on *-dev are extremely unlikely to happen, because the
user has a wider audience on *-user. And if they happen, it's easier
to ignore them completely.
bugaj> Just my $0.02, and another off-topic post...
Thanks,
andreas