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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!haven.umd.edu!news.umbc.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!noc.near.net!ceylon!genesis!steve2 From: steve2@genesis.nred.ma.us (Steve Gerakines) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc Subject: newsgroups vs. mailing lists Message-ID: <CG3r20.Ko@genesis.nred.ma.us> Date: 7 Nov 93 03:29:58 GMT References: <jmonroyCFv39C.Iv1@netcom.com> <2b64ce$l4o@zip.eecs.umich.edu> <CGD.93Nov2125848@eden.cs.berkeley.edu> Organization: Genesis Public Access Unix +1 508 664 0149 Lines: 35 >=>[ mailing lists vs. newsgroups ] >Chris G. Demetriou says: >it might be 'lame,' but a person *can't* do it all. >(i'd also dispute that 'newsgroups are obviously the way to go to get >"the public" involved... they're certainly the way to go to waste >people's disk space... 8-) >But the fact is, we've all got 'other stuff to do', some of which is >better than hacking. 8-) There's something better? Really? :-) >As an aside: what's the difference between a mailing list and a newsgroup? >the only one i can think of is that a whole lot of sites receive news, >whereas only interested parties receive mailing list mail. In my opinion, newsgroups have the advantage of reaching a wider audience. When someone else runs into a problem installing the operating system I'm thinking about going to, I like to be able to read about their experiences. Solutions to common problems (such as installations) become more well known. I can't believe how people are being grilled because they posted their problems openly, instead of redirecting them to a mailing list. The other problem with mailing lists is that because there are so many of them now, my mailbox gets pretty cluttered. I spend more time reading mail and a little less reading news. To me, traffic on the comp.os.386bsd.* newsgroups doesn't really seem high enough to warrant the mailing lists. The Linux newsgroups on the other hand are crazy. - Steve steve2@genesis.nred.ma.us