Andy Mell <amell@cup.cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> 
> On Sat, 7 Dec 1996, Chris Rutter wrote:
> 
> > > I suggets alt.comp.riscbsd
> > 
> >  Nah. comp.sys.riscbsd is _much_ better.
> 
> Well, seeing as I managed to get a whole load of new acorn groups created
> a few years ago (older hacks may remember the comp.sys.acorn.*
> reorganisation) I would suggest comp.sys.acorn.riscbsd is the best bet and
> most likely to be accepted when it comes to the vote. Remember it is not
> just us Acorn people who are allowed to vote - other people can, and do
> vote depending on how they like the name and how it fits into the usenet
> schema.
> 
> You should also decide whether it is to be called riscbsd or its official
> name which is netbsd/ARM at this point. Mistakes in the name of the group
> are irrevocable.

I would agree with Andy on this, but I don't think we should move to a
newsgroup.

These are my reasons:

against news (in no particular order)

  1. news propagation delays
  2. newsgroup propagation
  3. spam
  4. flamewars
  5. post from people consfused about name - c.f. c.s.a.extra-cpu
        a *bsd group would likely get even more incorrect postings
        Just consider the number of i386 users of NetBSD, let alone all
        the other idiots out there posting just 'cause they saw *bsd.
  6. volume does not justify it - look at the other netbsd groups which are
       mailing lists and I've not seen any messages about making them
       newsgroups in the time I've been reading about 6 of them.
       this would also count against it when discussion takes place and
       would probably stop a c.s.a.*bsd group being allowed.
       There have been approx. 440 emails over the last 38 days = 11.5/day
  7. some people don't have news access
  8. alt.* - definitely a bad idea - most of the points above are doubly true

pro (given by someone else)
  arrives as normal news, not part of email - neither a pro or a con IMHO
  the vast majority of my email is from mailing lists, but the riscbsd list
  accounts for less than 5% of my email.

pro (the ones I can see)
  allows people to 'dip in' - but subscribing is not really a problem.
  visibility to Acorn NetBSD/arm32 - unlikely, since 1 group in 20,000
    is not going to stand out.

So, apart from the `ego trip' of having a newsgroup, what is the real
need ?

If it is thought that NetBSD/arm32 isn't visible enough to RPC users,
then I would suggest that Mark posts key announcements and reminders to
c.s.a.announce. Reminders more than 4 times a year would be enough.

A final thought - what happens when ARMLinux arrives for the RPC. Surely
it would deserve it's own newsgroup too ? Then what is done about all
the cross mailing between the two and potential flamewars between the
two camps ?

No thanks, please keep the mailing list as it is.

regards,
Pete