Date: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 07:49:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Gordon Hogenson <ghogenso AT mammoth DOT chem DOT washington DOT edu>
Sender: Gordon Hogenson <ghogenso AT mammoth DOT chem DOT washington DOT edu>
Reply-To: Gordon Hogenson <ghogenso AT mammoth DOT chem DOT washington DOT edu>
Subject: Re: Too many groups? (was: start a news group!)
To: Stephen Turnbull <turnbull AT shako DOT sk DOT tsukuba DOT ac DOT jp>
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu



On Fri, 25 Feb 1994, Stephen Turnbull wrote:

> >   gnu.gcc.djgpp.help
> >   gnu.gcc.djgpp.help.new-user
> 
>     I disagree strongly with people worried about duplicate posts.  If
> people post installation and/or newbie questions to "help", send them
> flames and copies of "netiquette" and uuencoded TNT.

Isn't that a bit unfriendly?  This is exactly the reason NOT to have
the groups "help" and "help.new-user" -- because there is no better
solution than the above.  I doubt if DJGPP or the concept of free software
in general would be advanced by flaming new users for posting to a "help"
group, a name which 99% of new and newish users would interpret as the
right place to post newbie questions (by analogy with comp.os.linux.help
and others).  In any case they would always be faced with the difficult
question "Am I still too 'new' to post to the help group?"  That is
assuming they don't get so annoyed at being flamed by their first posting
that they decide they're better off buying a compiler from Microsoft.  (Also
note that in many newsreaders that give you groups in alphabetical order,
new users would encounter '.help' before '.help.new-user').  Having a
help group that isn't for all kinds of help is just asking for trouble. 
'...djgpp.advanced' is much less misleading if that's what it's to be
intended for.

Let's nip this newbie-bashing in the bud before it gets out of hand....  

Gordon