(re) OFF TOPIC: The Mailinglist

trice@dstar.california.com
Date: 06/16/96


On Sun, 16 Jun 1996, Eric Pilcher wrote:

> The problem is, I'm working on a circle code under Linux with
> gcc and thus, all the posts about Win95 and DOS and ELF aren't
> really worth a pile of Fido corpses to me.  Meanwhile, I have
> to sift through and delete them all out.

For those of us not running Linux all the Linux/ELF things recently are 
also annoying.  Not to mention questions about setting up crontab files, 
learning 'gdb', and other such nonsense.  Sure, it get's annoying.  It'd 
be really nice if people would pay attention to their subject headers and 
make them convient for other people to selectively read.  For instance, I 
added a little "OFF TOPIC" to the subject header so people not willing to 
participate in off-topic discussions can choose to ignore it. It'd help 
if people used the NEWBIE, CODE, DISCUSSION, OFF TOPIC notes in their 
subject headers, as well as, when neccessary some more information about 
what the message is going to be about.

For instance the recent discussion about Linux-ELF, could be headed like, 
"(Linux/ELF) OFF TOPIC: Odd 'malloc' crash..."  If someone didn't know 
squat about Linux/ELF they could easily ignore it.

> Has anyone concidered a newsgroup?  Yes, I know, EVIL people
> can post to newsgroups.  They would spam us with phone sex
> adds and pyramid schemes.  They would troll with surveys for
> bogus research projects or false messages of how they desperately
> needed money becuase they were downsized and can no longer afford
> the payments on their Lexus, condo, pleasure yatch, etc.

Is there something that stops them from doing that here?  The trouble of 
sending a subscription message?  Of course, it's a bit inconvient to go 
in search of mailing lists to post to. :)

> Hell, moderate the thing if you have to, but I think it would
> be a lot more user (not to mention mailbox) friendly.

It would to some extent.  There'd be more spam if it wasn't moderated, 
there'd be tons of advertisements and even more people trying to do 
Stupid Newbie Tricks with their code.  Assuming it wasn't moderated.  If 
it was, then it would offer no advantage over a moderated form of the 
mailing list.  I think the mailing list is better.

	-dak



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