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 Administrative / General / 3188
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Subject: 
Re: New Group Suggestion
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.general
Date: 
Mon, 8 Nov 1999 04:06:16 GMT
Viewed: 
268 times
  
In lugnet.admin.general, blisses@worldnet.att.net (Steve Bliss) writes:
Todd,
This might sound kind of odd, but I'll just jump in:

There should be a lugnet.mindstorms group.

I realize there are already a large number of robotics groups, which are very
active, but there's not a single product-oriented group for LEGO™ MINDSTORMS™.

Because applications of LEGO MINDSTORMS actually go far beyond robotics?  Or
just for completeness/correctness?

What sorts of things would get discussed there (and why) which aren't
already discussed in lugnet.robotics or a subgroup?

It's a funny thing -- we figured out how to handle the lugnet.trains
situation to avoid duplication and having two trains groups...

   http://www.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=1198
   http://www.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=2381

...but by avoiding having two LEGO MINDSTORMS groups (lugnet.mindstorms and
lugnet.robotics), we're stuck with just the .robotics group because, like
trains, it was there since the beginning...plus it has quite a few
subgroups.  The funny thing, though, it turns out, is that it's not purely a
legacy thing...

Here's a tree showing the current .robotics groups...  The number to the
left of each groupname (0 or 1) is a flag which organizes the groups into
collections above and below a horizontal rule on the webpages.  0=unofficial
and 1=official.  (See / or /robotics/ or /robotics/rcx/ for a visual
example.)

   0 lugnet.robotics
   1 lugnet.robotics.codepilot
   1 lugnet.robotics.cybermaster
   0 lugnet.robotics.edu
   0 lugnet.robotics.events
   0 lugnet.robotics.events.robot-arena
   0 lugnet.robotics.handyboard
   0 lugnet.robotics.logo
   1 lugnet.robotics.microscout
   0 lugnet.robotics.palm
   1 lugnet.robotics.rcx
   0 lugnet.robotics.rcx.java
   0 lugnet.robotics.rcx.legos
   0 lugnet.robotics.rcx.nqc
   0 lugnet.robotics.rcx.pbforth
   1 lugnet.robotics.rcx.robolab
   1 lugnet.robotics.scout
   0 lugnet.robotics.tele
   1 lugnet.robotics.vll

If these were instead arranged into the most "correct" places, then they
would end up falling something like this...

   1 lugnet.dacta
   1 lugnet.dacta.rcx
   1 lugnet.dacta.rcx.robolab
   1 lugnet.mindstorms
   1 lugnet.mindstorms.microscout
   0 lugnet.mindstorms.palm
   1 lugnet.mindstorms.rcx
   0 lugnet.mindstorms.rcx.java
   0 lugnet.mindstorms.rcx.legos
   0 lugnet.mindstorms.rcx.nqc
   0 lugnet.mindstorms.rcx.pbforth
   1 lugnet.mindstorms.scout
   1 lugnet.mindstorms.vll
   0 lugnet.robotics
   0 lugnet.robotics.edu
   0 lugnet.robotics.events
   0 lugnet.robotics.events.robot-arena
   0 lugnet.robotics.handyboard
   0 lugnet.robotics.logo
   0 lugnet.robotics.tele
   1 lugnet.technic
   1 lugnet.technic.codepilot
   1 lugnet.technic.cybermaster

...which would mean 4 separate hierarchies (instead of 1) for discussing
robotics and robotics-related things, because:

   * ROBOLAB is a DACTA product, not a LEGO MINDSTORMS product.

   * Code Pilot and CyberMaster are LEGO TECHNIC products, not LEGO
     MINDSTORMS products.

   * Handy Board is reasonably LEGO-related but not at all a LEGO MINDSTORMS
     product.

Anyway, that's why there currently isn't a .mindstorms group -- because it's
a big can of worms -- but I totally agree in principle/theory that a
mindstorms group/category should be created in _some_ way.  But taking
steps toward that have to be done _very_ carefully, so as not to open the
can of worms too hastily.

I think a perfectly safe first step would be to create a non-discussion-
group category off the root, i.e. /mindstorms/, and point it at other things
via virtual subcategories (links).  But I don't know about further steps
just yet.

--Todd



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: New Group Suggestion
 
(...) What about a lugnet.robotics.mindstorms subgroup (with possible .extreme and so on [sub]subgroups for add-on packs)? Just a thought. :: paul (25 years ago, 8-Nov-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
  Re: New Group Suggestion
 
(...) Actually, I was looking for a place to ask (possibly dumb) questions related to the kits themselves. My questions/topics don't seem on-topic for groups devoted to discussing robot design, or hacking the internals, or using alternate OS's, or (...) (25 years ago, 9-Nov-99, to lugnet.admin.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  New Group Suggestion
 
Todd, This might sound kind of odd, but I'll just jump in: There should be a lugnet.mindstorms group. I realize there are already a large number of robotics groups, which are very active, but there's not a single product-oriented group for LEGO™ (...) (25 years ago, 8-Nov-99, to lugnet.admin.general)

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