Re: Newsgroups and this mailing list
I may be wrong (pls correct me if so) but I believe this mail list _IS_
linked to the newsgroups. Check out linux.debian.user
ivan.
At 11:30 AM 12/29/98 GMT, you wrote:
>Ross Boylan (RossBoylan@alumni.stanford.org) wrote...
>> Hi. I'm about to get a new machine and put Debian on it, and was wondering
>
>Congratulations!!
>
>Please don't take the following as criticism, it's meant more as
>correcting some mis-knowledge you have. Share And Enjoy, and all
>that. Feel free to respond :)
>
>> if someone could explain the relation between the Debian mailing lists and
>> the comp.os.linux hierarchy in newgroups.
>> My immediate practical question is which source I should use for help.
>
>Use the debian sources for debian-specific help like "Why doesn't this
>.deb install properly?" and the *linux* newsgroups for more general
>help.
>
>> My more general question is why this apparent split exists (if I'm correct
>> that it does).
>
>So that the Debian-specific questions can be answered in a quieter
>forum with less noise. Newsgroups tend to have much more off-topic
>junk and spam than mailing lists. Those newsgroups are also for -all-
>flavours of Linux, not just Debian. Many of the Debian people who
>help here probably don't have the time or inclination to wander
>through newsgroups full of questions that have nothing to do with
>Debian.
>
>> First, why not use the newsgroups mechanism? Are there people without
>> access to them, or is it just an historical holdover? I believe it is
>
>1. More noise, less 'signal' in the newsgroups.
>2. More stuff not related to Debian.
>3. News propogation isn't great, people will only get some of the
> articles. It depends on -all- of the machines being up and
> well-behaved, where mailing lists just depend on debian.org and the
> recipient machine.
>4. News is slower to propogate.
>5. To start up a new newsgroup is a long and involved process, where
> if Debian needs a new mailing list they can just start it.
>
>> possible to gateway between a mailing list and a newsgroup, so that posts
>> to one come out in both forms.
>
>Gatewaying tends to be buggy and cause dupes. It also means that the
>spam and junk that tends to get posted to newsgroups will end up in the
>mailing list as well -
>
>> Newsgroups would allow searching and archiving via Deja News (among
>> others), would be more visible to others,
>
>The archives are available to anybody on the Debian website. And
>there's plenty of advertising that they exist.
>
>> and wouldn't fill up my disk so much :)
>
>:) True. But you -could- always read them from the website
>archives!
>
>> Of course, Debian could use newgroups but keep them separate from the
>> comp.os.linux groups. Is there any reason to do so? It seems to me doing
>> so somewhat defeats the purpose of open software. It also makes Debian
>
>Why so? If the discussions weren't available to anybody then
>probably it would defeat the purpose of open -support-, but the
>mailing lists are open and the archives are on the web ...
>
>> appear somewhat rare, if one judges by traffic in the newsgroups.
>
>Is this a problem? Advertising isn't our game, and Debian has lots
>of users. Taking over the world, or even the Linux world, isn't
>their aim.
>
>
>bekj
>
>--
>: --Hacker-Neophile-Eclectic-Geek-Grrl-Queer-Disabled-Boychick--
>: gossamer@tertius.net.au http://www.tertius.net.au/~gossamer/
>: It is the business of the future to be dangerous. -- Hawkwind
>
>
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