Re: The charter for this newsgroup

From: HansF <News.Hans_at_telus.net>
Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2006 23:21:59 GMT
Message-Id: <pan.2006.01.04.23.21.58.350166@telus.net>

On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:36:58 -0800, Joel Garry wrote:

> 
> HansF wrote:

>> On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 05:03:58 -0800, bbulsara23 wrote:
>>
>> Funny thing is, when I go to groups.google.com and look at anything
>> in comp.database.oracle.server, I see
>> - the posts are all sorted in bottom-post order; and
>> - quoted material is trimmed as much as possible;
>> I wonder why that is?

> 
> I hope that is a typo in the group name :-)
>

Yes it was a typo.

Never the less, Google Groups appears top bottom-add all new posts and trim quoting. (At least when you go straight to the group and not through their useless 'helpful' alternative access)

>>
>> (I also note that all software change control reads from the top down,
>> putting the older information in place first before editing with the next
>> layer. Seems like a similar concept.)

> 
> I have to deal with manual change control far too often (sigh).
>

I know what you mean. (Still - it was just an observation <g>)

>>
>> As for setting which to use in the charter - there are far more important
>> things to put into the charter. (Personally, I'd like to see
>> cdo.marketplace changed to something like cdo.announce, making it more
>> general than just a 'commercial' marketplace, and then adjust the charters
>> for these to reflect that change.)
>>
>> Simply rewriting the charter and posting it somewhere is not gonna work,
>> because some self-styled lawyer will point out that it's not official.
>> (Been there, done that!) The way to do it is to put up a call for change,

> 
> Ooh, where did you do that?
>

It was one (or perhaps two) year and one month ago, I attempted to get some feedback in a semi-official 'call for discussion' that I hosted myself, in an attempt to get the charters fixed.

That resulted in

5 responses of discussion to get a decent revision to the charter;
45 responses of "you can't do that; it's a free world; the internet doesn't belong to ..."

As promised in the original call, I have destroyed the mail account that was used for this, and all the related email.

> [snip] 
>

>> Newsgroup interaction is, on the other hand, a group interaction. It
>> can, and does, have a number of diversions and tangent points. In
>> order to ensure continuity on any tangent, it is therefore very
>> important to provide the ties - as close as possible - between the
>> original point of tangent and the actual tangent itself.

> 
> Some people never get that this can be some of the best group
> interaction.
>

Agreed.

And making such interaction meaningful, rather than wading through piles of crap to get to the bottom post, or having to scroll to bottom and read backwards is why I think interleaved, intelligently trimmed, posting is the correct way to handle newsgroups.

However, that can not be expected in this day and age, can it?

(BTW - I'm moving much of my discussion time to the OTN-hosted discussion forums. The signal to noise ratio is a lot better there.)

-- 
Hans Forbrich                           
Canada-wide Oracle training and consulting
mailto: Fuzzy.GreyBeard_at_gmail.com   
*** Top posting [replies] guarantees I won't respond. ***

Received on Wed Jan 04 2006 - 17:21:59 CST