Samuel Hocevar wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I don't know if any of you had a look at comp.emulators.freemware,
> but it really doesn't look like what it ought to be; basically, 99%
> of the messages are about roms, playstation emulators, and warez CDs.
>
> Some people already gave up reading the group, and I understand
> their reaction. However, I would be quite disappointed if the group
> died due to spammers, especially because of the effort involved in
> its creation, so I think a mail2news gateway would help reducing
> the noise/signal ratio.
>
> I also understand you developpers prefer a mailing list as a way
> to coordinate efforts, and probably do not want to bother with
> maintaining such a system. Thus I am willing to set it up and
> maintain it.
>
> At the moment, I just intend to do the mail->news way, to avoid
> spam being forwarded to the mailing-list.
I'll offer my current thinkings and observations which have
evolved over the last few months regarding a gateway, and
usenet in general.
We currently have our FreeMWare mailing list archived, actually
on two web sites. This provides a solution for two cases:
1) the postings can be indexed by search engines, and
2) people can keep track of the list activity online without
joining the email list.
Up to now, everyone has seemed satisfied with the channels
we currently have in place. Though, if you really believe that
adding an email->usenet gateway will serve a group of people
who are not currently served by what we have already, then
I don't have any *major* issues with it, so long as other people
on the list don't object either. It would have to be
one way as you suggest, given that Usenet has turned into
a giant public toilet for spammers to use.
A minor issue I would point out, is the interesting
quandary such a gateway presents. Without a duplex
gateway, what can/will can happen, is for threads of
conversation (both new and follow-ups to ones from the
mailing list) to carry on in the usenet group but
will not show up on the email list. This may be
a blessing if the postings are crap, but is unfortunate
if they are something useful and interesting.
And I think it will leave people who post to the
usenet, frustrated by the non-responses by people on the
email list, since they were never gatewayed the usenet posting.
Currently, people who want to be active on the forum are
forced to use one consistent channel (this list).
In retrospect, I probably should have started the newsgroup
as moderated, and piped all submissions except ones from an email->usenet
gateway to /dev/null. In essence this would have created
a "read-only" usenet mirror.
Anyhow, I do appreciate the offer, and I leave it up to the
rest of the group to voice any opinions they have.
-Kevin
