Re: ENOUGH!!!

Steven N. Hirsch (shirsch@ibm.net)
Tue, 25 Feb 1997 23:15:30 -0500 (EST)


On Tue, 25 Feb 1997, SubbaRao V. Chitturi wrote:

> > I would like there to be a mailing list which is read-only for people
> > not in the MAINTAINERS file. Currently the noise forces some serious
> > discussion off the kernel list and into private email. That means that
> > not all information is dispersed as widely as might be useful.
> >
> > Of course, I may be proposing a solution to a non-problem.
> > linux-kernel should remain the way it is, IMHO.
> >
> > Benny
>
> Why would one want to be bombarded with email for which they are not
> using that information anytime in the near future? You will be spending
> the rest of your life reading email and doing nothing.
>
> I want to share with you all my experience with one of the best
> maintained list. The list is for HP-UX. It is maintained in somewhere in
> Holland. The list administrator appends to each posting,
>
> "Post only questions and summaries only".
>
> The list members follow that rule very well. Instead of having my
> mailbox full of technical or psuedo-technical questions about a subject
> which is not important to me at that time, I prefer to read mail from
> exprienced folks who are offering help to my problem. If someone posted
> a question to the group for which I have an answer I would reply to the
> original poster with the solution. He/she in turn will post the summary
> of replies to the group.
>
> I hope to see that implemented for linux lists. Although digest is one
> solution, I strongly believe the HP-UX lists method of the list
> management be adopted by other lists.

I couldn't disagree more. As sysadmin for a group of Digital Alpha
machines in my real job, I thought the Digital Unix System Admin mailing
list would be useful. Unfortunately, since it was run the way you are
suggesting, it was a waste of bandwidth. Many questions posted - very few
answers - zero dialog. I dropped it after less than a week.

The kernel list isn't broken. Please don't try to fix it.

Steve