Re: PROPOSAL: alt.winhelp and alt.winhelp.win95

["Daniel A. Hartung" <dhartung -at- MCS -dot- COM>]

In article <3r9cua$3ac -at- amoeba -dot- micro -dot- org>,
   titanide -at- micro -dot- org (Patrick O'Connell) wrote:
>I propose the creation of alt.winhelp, to replace the newsgroup
>comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.winhelp,

* alt groups can't 'replace' Big 8 groups; you'd have to hold
  a vote to remove it

 whose subject is the authoring of
>online help for the Microsoft Windows environment ("Windows Help
>authoring).  The new newsgroup would have the same subject.

* newsgroups duplicating others that already exist are frowned
  upon.  There is confusion among new users about which one to
  use, and often factionalism between the two groups arises, which
  is not helpful.

I have three
>reasons for proposing this change:

>1) The name of the current newsgroup is just too *%^$! long!

Sorry, but it's much easier to FIND than a random alt group
would be.  What software are you using?  Perhaps you could
find an easier way to access the group without forcing
a global change.

>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.

But the practical question is, does this make a difference?
Do technical writers complain they don't want to be there?
Do they grumble about the placement but stay?

>3) To create subgroups of c.o.ms-w.p.winhelp would result in groupnames
>even more unwieldy and more difficult to remember.

SOrry, that's the future of the net.  We're trying to work toward
MORE organization and hierarchical structure, not less, for the
benefit of the user.  It's also problematical to have zillions
of second-level hierarchy names as in alt, due to the limiations
of operating systems.

>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.

Expect extremely low propagation because of the duplication.

There is currently a proposal for a massive reorganization of the
comp.os.ms-windows hierarchy; you should probably talk to the
proponent.  Perhaps you could get a better name for your group
that would be more popular among the actual users.

And I think this should be crossposted to the group so the
readers have full information about this proposal.

--
Daniel A. Hartung       *  So G. Gordon Liddy says we should shoot federal
dhartung -at- mcs -dot- com        *  agents who come into our homes with guns blazing.
www.mcs.net/~dhartung/  *  But what should we do about the ones who come
                        *  to bug our offices and burgle our files?