Re: [Evolution] Default change in 1.5?

["D. D. Brierton" <darren dzr-web com>]

On Thu, 2004-04-01 at 17:09, Brad Warkentin wrote:
> (when there really was a reason to live inside of Emacs to
> get a windowing system on a VAX)

You mean people need a reason to live inside Emacs? :-)

> The requirement
> to subscribe to be able to participate is a very good one, and this
> alone is a good reason to keep it a list rather than a newsgroup. 
>
> [snip] And, don't even think about going to open
> newsgroups... closed mailing lists are the last bastion of reasonable
> signal/noise ratios.

As I sort of started the business about newsgroups I'd just like to
respond to that. I couldn't agree more that in no circumstances should
the Ximian lists (or any other open source project mailing lists) be
converted into open newsgroups. That would be a disaster. The signal to
noise ration on all but a few newsgroups is woeful.

What I was suggesting was to use a closed newsserver which requires a
login and password (registering would be no different to signing up to a
mailing list) and which only carries local groups which do not get
distributed to other newsservers. VMware do this (actually they don't
require registration and authentication, which I think they should). All
of VMware's support "lists" are in fact newsgroups local only to their
server. I also believe that Mozilla and OpenOffice.org have a similar
setup. That shouldn't affect the signal to noise ratio at all -- in many
ways it wouldn't be any different to using mailing lists. Its just that
newsreaders have features specifically for dealing with long threads
with multiple participants which most email clients do not have. I also
find the sheer volume of email I receive hard to deal with. IMHO email
should be for messages intended specifically for me. Newsgroups are for
general discussions. Just because usenet in general has been overrun by
bozos doesn't mean that we shouldn't use the right tool for the right
job. A properly configured newsserver requiring authentication, with
long retention, and carrying only local groups which are not forwarded
(that's not the proper term but I forget the proper NNTP jargon) to
other servers would, IMO, be the right tool.

Best, Darren

-- 
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D. D. Brierton            darren dzr-web com          www.dzr-web.com
       Trying is the first step towards failure (Homer Simpson)
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