Multiple Postings

[William Martin]

I haven't seen any later follow-ups or comments to Mr. List's posting about 
posting to both net.unix and net.unix-wizards, or the ARPA equivalents
of Info-Unix and Unix-Wizards. However, I, too, have noticed this
phenomenon, and thought it was worth some comment/discussion. 

I base my interpretation of the distinction between the two lists on a
description of Info-Unix that was circulated when the ARPA gateway of
net.unix first was established. As I recall it, essentially the
difference is that net.unix/Info-Unix is for beginners, elementary
questions, simple problems, etc. Unix-Wizards, on the other hand, is
*only* for people who are experienced in Unix internals and technical
details. Because of this, I have always read Info-Unix/net.unix, and
never read Unix-Wizards. I am no wizard -- I barely know enough Unix to
do what I need to do, and my questions are basic and low-level.

Because this distinction has always existed, I have never seen much
rationale for cross-posting to both groups. If a question or comment is
technically advanced enough to be worthy of Unix-Wizards, it will be
incomprehensible to the readership of Info-Unix/net.unix, except for
those that read both (either for amusement or to offer aid and advice to
those of us who are not as knowledgeable). If, on the other hand, the
comment is on the Info-Unix/net.unix level, it is boring and trivial to
the real wizards on Unix-Wizards.

Concomitant with this distinction, there should be a somewhat different
attitude toward participants. In Info-Unix/net.unix, toleration and
understanding, and a helpful attitude towards the neophyte, should be
the order of the day. On Unix-Wizards, though, all bets are off. This is
the "big boys'" playground, and showing ignorance or making mistakes
here will subject the hapless participant to flames and abuse. This
seems reasonable, considering the clear identification of "wizardry" in
the group name. 

There probably should be an exception made for some topics that *do*
deserve cross-posting. What comes to mind immediately are rewarding and
worthwhile things like the recent collection and summary of comments on
the AT&T 3B hardware. Perhaps others can better define what should be
posted to both lists/groups?

I don't know if there is a good way to clearly define the dividing line
between these groups. One could say something like "device drivers,
kernel internals, and other advanced topics" belong in Unix-Wizards,
while "Unix history, interpreting ambiguous manual statements, and
user-level software issues, etc." belong on Info-Unix/net.unix. However,
this is pretty fuzzy, and even I can pick holes in these examples fairly
easily. I think it might be more in the nature of a subjective judgement.
Comments leading to a good working definition of the two areas would be
welcomed.

[If anyone wants to post or forward this to Unix-Wizards to enlarge the
scope of the discussion, please do. I'm not going to post there; I know
my place! :-)]

Regards,
Will Martin

ARPA/MILNET: wmartin at almsa-1.ARPA    UUCP/Usenet: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin