Re: [stellation-res] Newsgroup

[Dave Shields <shields@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Aug 26, 2002 at 10:10:38AM -0400, Jim Wright - IBM Research wrote:
> 
> I favor using a newsgroup for design discussions; my mailer does a bad job
> of handling threads.  Newsgroups also make it easier (imo) to manage
> multiple simultaneous discussions.  Not as important: I suspect a newsgroup
> will do a better job of keeping related posts in time order.  Timestamps for
> mail seem to vary widely; my primary mail client (Eudora) sorts by
> timestamp, so comments and replies are often listed out of order...
> 

Jim and Mark both seem to prefer newsgroup since that is more convenient for the tools
they use. I happen to use mutt, which is *great* at managing mail list threads.
Indeed, that's the main reason I use it.

Most OS projects that I have been involved with, or followed, seem to use mail lists,
and not newsgroups. The usual structure for project P is to have lists

  P (sometimes named P-users or P-discuss) for user queries and general information.

  P-announce for announcing new releases of the software

  P-dev for developers

Currently we are using just one list.

I don't see the need for an announce list until we have more users.

I would suggest the current list, stellation-res, be viewed as stellation-dev,
and we could consider using the newsgroup in the role of stellation-users. This would
keep newbie-traffic off the dev list.

One argument against extensive use of newsgroups is that we shouldn't assume all the readers
have high bandwidth. This used to (and maybe still is) the case for readers outside the US.
A big advantage of a mail list is that it can be accessed using low bandwidth, without the
need to access via a browser. Also, replies can be composed off-line.

dave
-- 
Dave Shields, IBM Research, shields@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.