PROPOSAL: alt.winhelp and alt.winhelp.win95

[Patrick O'Connell <titanide -at- MICRO -dot- ORG>]

I propose the creation of alt.winhelp, to replace the newsgroup
comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.winhelp, whose subject is the authoring of
online help for the Microsoft Windows environment ("Windows Help
authoring).  The new newsgroup would have the same subject. I have three
reasons for proposing this change:

1) The name of the current newsgroup is just too *%^$! long!
2) The group is in too specific a hierarchy given that (from what I have
seen) most Windows Help authoring is the domain of technical writers
rather than programmers.
3) To create subgroups of c.o.ms-w.p.winhelp would result in groupnames
even more unwieldy and more difficult to remember.

I further propose the creation of alt.winhelp.win95, to be used for the
discussion of issues relating specifically to authoring online help for
the Microsoft Windows 95 environment.

Feedback on these ideas should be directed to Patrick O'Connell, at:

titanide -at- micro -dot- org

If no opposition is voiced within seven after the posting of this
article, I will create alt.winhelp and alt.winhelp.win95 as described above.
I am open to the idea, BTW, of having a more generic family of groups
that include help authoring for other platforms (e.g.,
alt.helpauth.winhelp; alt.helpauth.win95; alt.helpauth.os2; et al.) and
desire feedback on this idea as well.

Thanks
Pat O'Connell
Technical writer / online help author
titanide -at- micro -dot- org