[NTLUG:Discuss] NTLUG Discuss Guidelines

[Steve Baker]

greenglow484 at juno.com wrote:

> > Personally, I think that we would be better served having a set of
> > mailing lists.  The one's I've proposed are:
> >
> > NTLUG-announce : A read-only list that only a few nominated people
> >                  can post to that carries notices of meetings,
> >                  special events and so on.
> >
> > NTLUG-discuss  : A list which is only for discussion of NTLUG
> > business meetings and special events. Nothing else.
> >
> > NTLUG-helpline : What this list currently spends most of it's time
> > doing.  Answering Linux-related questions.
> >
> > NTLUG-jobs     : Job offers, job requests, nothing else.
> >
> > NTLUG-smallAds : Computers, peripherals for sale, 'want ads', etc.

>         A downside:  (This occurred to me a week or so ago, when I was thinking
> about whether I thought we needed separate "newbie" and
> "more-experienced" listservs):  Maybe it will cause some fragmentation of
> the group:  A unity is maintained when everyone reads (except for the
> jobs list) basically one list.

We would still all read the same list (NTLUG-discuss) - but we wouldn't all
have to wade through questions about things we could care less about.
I feel that many people ask general Linux questions on this list simply
because they can't be bothered to look for the "correct" list.

We see a lot of network-related (esp. Firewalls, etc) questions here - and
generally, they seem to get good answers - but if you really have a question
about that stuff, you'd be better off directing it at an appropriate newsgroup
or mailing list rather than NTLUG where people like me hang out in order to
find out where next month's meeting is happening, etc.

As someone who isn't either interested - or able to help - with those questions,
I do find it somewhat irksome to have to delete a dozen or more of them each
day when all I really want of this list is what I describe above as the 'announce'
and 'discuss' list.

Questions I have - and answers I can give - about subjects that interest me
(3D graphics, audio, game design, etc) don't generally appear on this list
because I direct them to the Mesa group, OpenGL-Gamedev, Algorithms-Gamedev
and others.

When you stop to think about the purpose of any list, it's best described
by common factor between the set of people who read/contribute to it. In
the case of NTLUG, all we REALLY have in common is Linux and happening
to live in the same geographical area.

It follows that our list should concentrate on local issues. That means
meetings, jobs, equipment for sale/want ads and such like.

For general Linux questions and answers, I could equally well listen to
the messages from a couple of hundred Linux users taken at random from
anywhere on the planet.  I don't do that because I want more specific
questions and answers related to my field of interest.

>         Plus, as to the 5 lists you proposed:  You left out a potential area.
> Example:  Suppose I'm burning to launch a discussion of why I think
> (which I do, btw), that U.C.I.T.A. is a lousy, reprehensible idea for
> open-source, free (speech) software.
> 
>         Or, suppose I just want to point out some idiotic thing that Micro$oft,
> or Sun, or someone else, is doing, compared to Linux; or I have come up
> with something I think is noteworthy, as to countering Micro$oft's phony
> Linux "myths".

Well, that's a very interesting subject for a mailing list - but why restrict
it to people who happen to live in North Texas?   Right now, UCITA battles
are popping up all over the place - and the best way to oppose it is to talk
to people from all over the USA and not just to a couple of hundred people
in North Texas.  Certainly when UCITA gets picked up by the Texas legislature
(as it surely will), we as a LOCAL group will need to discuss what we want
to do about it...then it becomes on-topic for the NTLUG-discuss that I propose
and less relevent to a world-wide list.
 
>         Or even that post I did, yesterday morning:  "Hey, guys & gals, check
> out the Dallas Morning News article on Linux and NTLUG.  Here's the URL."
>  In the proposed 5 lists above, nowhere to do that ("...NTLUG-discuss  :
> A list which is only for discussion of NTLUG business meetings and
> special events. Nothing else.")

Yes - that's another matter of local interest - and would be completely
appropriate for the NTLUG-discuss list I have in mind.

OK perhaps I needed to be a little more careful about my description
of my preferred NTLUG-discuss.  My basic premise is that it should be
about things that are inappropriate for more general Linux lists because
of geographical locality.  Since job ads and 'want' ads are also rather
local in nature, they are also things that NTLUG could usefully support
- but not on the main list because lots of people don't want that.

I did propose that we retain an NTLUG-helpline list - although I think
it's not something that's really useful - some people obviously like
to work that way - and I wouldn't want to upset them by suggesting that
this stuff should be banned...putting it into a separate list would let
me opt out of it and yet still read the announce and discuss lists without
all the stuff I'm not interested in.

>         I think stuff like this is a sort of "additive" for the discussion
> lists.  It's not technical, so anyone (even a newbie like me) has an
> opinion, and can join in.  It offers some contrast to the technical
> discussion of configuring servers, modems etc.  Or, maybe the group
> thinks this kind of stuff shouldn't be covered; Save it for /. or for
> Linux Today (Not my preference, but maybe I'm in the minority).  Any
> ideas, anyone?

Well, "There was an interesting article in Linux Today" is best handled
by /. and others because it doesn't in any way relate specially to
North Texas.  However "There was an interesting article in Dallas
Morning News" is clearly of local interest - especially since our
group was mentioned by name and one of our members contributed to it.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1 at airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker at hti.com      (work)