Subject:
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Re: CFD: lugnet.lego.* newsgroup hierarchy
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.general
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Date:
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Mon, 9 Aug 1999 09:38:56 GMT
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Viewed:
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831 times
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In lugnet.announce, lehman@javanet.com (Todd Lehman) writes:
> [...]
> There are two main possibilities...one is the anal-retentive structure --
> which attempts to match the official product line as closely as possible...
> the other is the more intuitive structure -- which still attempts to match the
> official product line, but which ignores the fact that there is this little
> thing called SYSTEM.
When I said there were "two main possibilities," I really meant that there
were only two apparently feasable possibilities. But there's actually a
third feasable possibility -- it was right under my nose and I didn't see
it!
> [...]
> * There is potential duplication between
>
> lugnet.lego.trains and lugnet.trains
> lugnet.lego.starwars and lugnet.starwars
> lugnet.lego.mindstorms and lugnet.robotics
>
> depending on how the groups are structured. If these new groups are
> tailored more toward discussing the product line offerings (set numbers,
> availability, reviews, etc.) and less toward building, then the
> duplication becomes less of an issue. The idea behind these conversation-
> flow of these new groups is (a) to have places to talk about the product
> lines and (b) to have places to post a question or opinion about a set
> *right from the DB pages for a set*, which will be waycool.
Here's the flaw in my thinking above: I'd always been thinking that the
comprehensive LEGO product guide ought to be based off of some root
subdirectory of the website (that's the way it had always been done in the
past). At one point long ago, it was going to be
http://www.lugnet.com/guide/
which later turned into
http://guide.lugnet.com/
which later became
http://database.lugnet.com/
which later became
http://www.lugnet.com/database/
and which more recently became
http://www.lugnet.com/lego/
-- and all of those certainly make sense, each in their own way -- but the
problem with them is that they each tuck away the DB stuff in a totally
separate hierarchy or namespace.
But does it have to be that way?
The key here is learning from the /news/ reorganization: When the news
stuff was first launched last fall, ALL of the newsgroup stuff was tucked
away under the /news/ directory, for example:
http://www.lugnet.com/news/display.cgi?lugnet.general
http://www.lugnet.com/news/display.cgi?lugnet.cad.dev
http://www.lugnet.com/news/display.cgi?lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf
That was the ONLY way to access to the newsgroups by URL from the website...
yuck. Now, of course, the URLs are much more sensible:
http://www.lugnet.com/general/
http://www.lugnet.com/cad/dev/
http://www.lugnet.com/loc/us/ca/sf/
That is, instead of the news stuff staying inside a special little area of
the website, the website was "turned inside out" to support the news stuff
throughout.
The same thing should happen with the LEGO products guide. Instead of it
staying inside a special little area of the website, the whole website
should become an area for the products guide. In other words, just as the
/news/ was exploded upwards toward the top of the site, there's no reason
that the /lego/ products area couldn't be exploded updwards. Thus we could
have:
Newsgroup name URL off the website root
================================== ==================================
lugnet.adventurers /adventurers/
lugnet.aquazone /aquazone/
lugnet.basic /basic/
lugnet.belville /belville/
lugnet.books /books/
lugnet.boats /boats/
lugnet.castle /castle/
lugnet.dacta /dacta/
lugnet.duplo /duplo/
lugnet.fabuland /fabuland/
lugnet.freestyle /freestyle/
lugnet.mindstorms /mindstorms/
lugnet.modelteam /modelteam/
lugnet.pirates /pirates/
lugnet.primo /primo/
lugnet.promo /promo/
lugnet.radiocontrol /radiocontrol/
lugnet.scala /scala/
lugnet.service /service/
lugnet.software.* /software/
lugnet.software.lego-chess /software/lego-chess/
lugnet.software.lego-creator /software/lego-creator/
lugnet.software.lego-friends /software/lego-friends/
lugnet.software.lego-loco /software/lego-loco/
lugnet.software.lego-racers /software/lego-racers/
lugnet.software.lego-rockraiders /software/lego-rockraiders/
lugnet.software.legoland /software/legoland/
lugnet.space /space/
lugnet.starwars /starwars/
lugnet.technic /technic/
lugnet.town /town/
lugnet.trains /trains/
lugnet.underground /underground/
lugnet.western /western/
lugnet.znap /znap/
Now, except for a couple oddities, don't those newsgroup names and URLs make
a lot more sense? And not only that, there's no longer a questionable
duplicity between lugnet.trains and lugnet.lego.trains, or between
lugnet.starwars and lugnet.lego.starwars. There's still a problem about
lugnet.mindstorms and lugnet.robotics, but the applications of LEGO
MINDSTORMS actually go far beyond robotics.
Does this sound like a good third option? (It does to me!)
There's at least one downside of all this flattening-out, though: the
number of links on the root homepage would jump from 18 to about 45 instead
of from 18 to 19 -- meaning that the on-screen display on the root homepage
might become a bit unweildy.
What do you think? -- Are two lists better than one? I'm not sure that
this...
Adventurers FreeStyle Space
Aquazone Model Team Star Wars
Basic Pirates Technic
Belville PRIMO Town
Books Promotional Trains
Castle Robotics Underground
DACTA Scala Western
DUPLO Service ZNAP
Fabuland Software
Administrative Dear LEGO Marketplace
Announcements FAQ Off-Topic
Building General Publishing
CAD LEGOLAND Reviews
Database Local Storage
...is really any clearer than this:
Administrative FAQ Robotics
Adventurers Fabuland Scala
Announcements FreeStyle Service
Aquazone General Software
Basic LEGOLAND Space
Belville Local Star Wars
Books Marketplace Storage
Building Model Team Technic
CAD Off-Topic Town
Castle PRIMO Trains
DACTA Pirates Underground
DUPLO Promotional Western
Database Publishing ZNAP
Dear LEGO Reviews
But I should wouldn't want to stuff much more into a list that big. :)
--Todd
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: CFD: lugnet.lego.* newsgroup hierarchy
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| In lugnet.admin.general, Todd Lehman writes: *snip* (...) This is great I really like the new URL/DB structure. Much more intuitive. (...) This definitly seems like it might be a bit unweildy to me, especially as the LEGO product line grows. Now I (...) (25 years ago, 9-Aug-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
| | | Re: CFD: lugnet.lego.* newsgroup hierarchy
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| In lugnet.admin.general, Todd Lehman writes: <snip> (...) From the outset, I like this better. It's more intuitive. Dropping SYSTEM, because we can't really identify a pattern as to what qualifies as SYSTEM, is a good idea as well as dropping (...) (25 years ago, 9-Aug-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
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