Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: hougen@kilo.cs.umn.edu (Dean Hougen)
Subject: Re: testing the waters for split of comp.robotics
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Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 03:35:20 GMT
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In article <Cv3LJp.HIL@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu> gcouger@olesun.okstate.edu (Gordon Couger) writes:
>This group is much much too small to split. 

I pointed out in another post that size has nothing to do with splitting.
If you haven't seen that post, let me know and I'll restate my arguments.
In the mean time, perhaps you could explain why you think a group must be
large to be split.

>IMHO most of the discussions are
>of interst to most of the group. 

Even if you are correct in this, it does not mean that there is not a
segment of the robotics community that is not well served by the 
current group.  I think these people exist, but many do not read the
current group.

>Spliting the group would IMHO result in
>many post being cross posted and increasing the precived traffic insted of
>decreasing it. 

If the split is clear, then there is no more likely to be excessive
cross-posting between the two halves of the former group than there
is between any two groups on the net.

>If you are having difficulty with the number of post I 
>would suggust that you get a threaded news reader such as strn I thing
>you will find that the time you spend reading stuff you arn't interested
>in will go way down.

I use a threaded news reader.  The situation is still lousy.  But as
long as you brought up the point of quality news readers, let me 
point out that a good news reader will catch cross-posted articles,
so even if you are right about a split causing many articles to be
cross-posted, there will be no perceived increase in traffic as each
article will only appear once.
>
>IMHO
>Gordon

Frankly, I don't understand the resistance to change among people in
an advanced technical field like this one.

Dean Hougen
--
"I'm on the outside now."  - Oingo Boingo
