🚀 go-pugleaf

Una Smith:
> You should get a .signature file, whoever you are.

That was me.  I don't have a .signature because it's redundant, given
that my name and e-mail address are perfectly represented in the From:
header, or should be.  But for you, I'll include one below.

> Well, as an evolutionary biologist, I have a deep and abiding
> appreciation for taxonomy.

I have great respect for taxonomy, but newsgroups are not species.

Newsgroups only need a name unique enough to identify them, and
perhaps some top-level designators for administrative purposes.

Look at how people abbreviate group names, like: r.a.sf.written.  This
is what's important in the name.  Sort of like genus/species.

One argument for hierarchies: if there's a nice conceptual hierarchy,
people can walk down it to find what they want.  This doesn't really
convince me.  I've tried walking down the Dewey Decimal System a
couple times, using the local library's computer catalog.  It's
awkward and not really very interesting.  Keyword/subject search is
much more useful.

If I want to find a newsgroup on PC games, I'm not going to walk down
comp/sys/ibm/pc/games.  How would I know to follow comp/sys/ibm
instead of rec/games?  I'd start by searching for "games" instead.

Enough babbling from me.
--
Felix Lee	flee@cs.psu.edu