Call for Discussion: Applications hierarchy (take 3)

[Evan Leibovitch]

This is a call for discussion regarding the creation of a new Usenet
hierarchy to deal with applications, and the first three groups to fill it:

comp.apps.misc
comp.apps.wp.wordperfect
comp.apps.wp.misc

This debate has been running off-and-on since June, and was heard about
as recently as last month. I want to officially re-open the discussion
period so there is no doubt in anyone's mind that it had enough time to
air in public. Also, this proposal is slightly different from the ones
that preceeded it.

PURPOSE:

There have been numerous postings about the desire for a proper place
in the Usenet hierarchy in which to place newsgroups devoted to specific
application software packages.

That a certain software package is brain-dead or not cannot be the issue
at all. If there are enough Usenetters around who want to talk about it,
trade tips, and generally provide peer support, there should be a place
on Usenet to provide that forum. If brain-deadness was a criteria for
creating groups, then half of what's in comp.sys and comp.os shouldn't
exist :-). It could be easily argued that the most brain-dead programs
are the ones *most* in need of a Usenet forum!

My proposal is to provide the first groups, to demonstrate the desired
precedent of comp.apps.<category>.<productname>, as well as .misc groups
to take up the slack.

comp.apps.wp.wordperfect	To discuss the word processing products
				of WordPerfect Corporation.

comp.apps.wp.misc		To discuss other word processing software.

comp.apps.misc			To discuss applications not provided for
				elsewhere in the comp.apps hierarchy.

The first specific group proposed is for WordPerfect, because it's been
mentioned specifically in much of the discussions about applications
newsgroups, and because it just happens to be a popular product on both
MS-DOS and UNIX platforms. It's a good example of what should be in an
applications hierarchy.

If there are enough postings/supporters in the misc group(s) for another
product, then its supporters can hold a vote here, to create a new group
in the apps hierarchy using the same <category>.<productname> structure.

HISTORY:

There has already been much discussion about the specific naming scheme
proposed above. This proposal is a combination of majority rule and
consensus among the many messages that were mailed and posted on the
subject during June and December 1990.

For more information on how the above naming scheme was arrived at, see
a separate posting with the Subject header "Applications hierarchy update".
This was posted to news.groups and news.announce.newgroups recently.

My apologies and pleas for patience go to those of you who have already
written or posted on the issue. I want to do this one by the book.
If your name was on the list of contributors in the "update" posting, then
your opinions have already been considered and evaluated as I attempted
to come up with this consensus proposal.

PROCEDURE:

The discussion period will last until February 15, 1991. At that time,
if the mass of discussion does not go against the consensus already
achieved, I will start a Call for Votes on the three groups.

Thank you.

-- 
 Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
       evan at telly.on.ca / uunet!attcan!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504
  "The dancing raisins are breaking up. One of them is dating Yoko Ono"