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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!wupost!usc!isi.edu!allard From: allard@isi.edu (Dennis Allard) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: 386bsd -- The New Newsgroup Message-ID: <22376@venera.isi.edu> Date: 11 Sep 92 22:29:06 GMT References: <1992Sep11.150400.24380@fcom.cc.utah.edu> <1992Sep8.200625.2894@socrates.umd.edu> <veit.716026274@du9ds3> <22364@venera.isi.edu> Sender: news@isi.edu Reply-To: allard@isi.edu (Dennis Allard) Distribution: world Organization: USC Information Sciences Institute Lines: 52 Keywords: newsgroup 386bsd news group terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes: > allard@isi.edu (Dennis Allard) writes: > ... In the case of gigabyte networks, that place need not have > >anything to do with 386bsd, ...except in so far as it deals > >with 386bsd implementation issues. > > How about BSD? By the same argument, the place need not have anything to > do with 386bsd except in so far as it deals with 386 implementation issues. > > Sounds like an argument against moving away from comp.unix.bsd. I didn't mean it to sound that way. I happen to favor moving out of comp.unix.bsd, based on my understanding of USENET convention and newsgroup naming precedents (however limited my understanding of those conventions may be). I am not a militant on this issue, however. I would point out that there are three semi-independent dimensions (at least) which cause a newsgroup to exist. 1. Some newsgroups are roughly isomorphic to 'user communities' centered around some system or concept. This is an issue of social togetherness. It happens in nonelectronic life, too. People at Apple and people at IBM study networking, but do it seperately (in the pre Pink era anyway :)). They each form a distinct social group. This is what Lynne Jolitz (I think) is proposing for the 386bsd subgroups. People who are together as concerns 386bsd *and* who want to also work together on certain computer science problems, using 386bsd as a social centrum. 2. Some newsgroups are explicitly devoted to a technical subject. 3. Some newsgroups are explicitly devoted to system administration and implementation. If I am interested in ppp, I subscribe to comp.protocols.ppp. If I want to see ppp run under 386bsd, I will follow any ppp thread I will see under comp.os.386bsd. In so far as I am starting to participate in the 386bsd social community, I will monitor everything of interest to me in comp.os.386bsd. I am only arguing to be very careful about creating groups which contain the cross product of reasons 2 and 3, while acknowledging that reason 1 does naturally lead to such fragmentation. My main point is that splitting 386bsd will not be easy, may not be desirable, and should only occur without undue presciption. As for seperating 386bsd from bsd, it is already happening!. Based, of course, on the fact that the 386bsd user community has already copted comp.unix.bsd as its forum. Dennis allard@isi.edu