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Subject: 
Re: Informal CFD: robotics competition newsgroup(s)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.general
Date: 
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 09:48:15 GMT
Viewed: 
1990 times
  
blisses@worldnet.att.net (Steve Bliss) writes:

If the new ng is specific to Robot Arena (which sounds like a cool
idea), it could be named:

lugnet.robot-arena
lugnet.loc.robot-arena
lugnet.events.robot-arena
lugnet.gaming.robot-arena[1]

or even:

lugnet.robotics.robot-arena

This is a hard call.  IMO, Robot Arena is 100% robotics and 100%
competition.  So it could either go in a hierarchy for robotics or a
hierarchy for game-events.

Let's throw another data point into the equation:  A specialized/focused ng
for Dave Baum's _Not_Quite_C_ language/compiler.  Would something like this
go best as lugnet.robotics.nqc or in a new place like lugnet.comp.lang.nqc?
(Someday, for example, there might be a lugnet.comp.lang.logo for Logo
programming.)

I was talking with Dave a bit about starting up a focus-group for NQC.
While a dedicated newsgroup wasn't something that he had considered
proposing (he's a modest guy :), he was enthusiastic about the idea and says
he would be a regular contributor and be present to answer questions and so
forth if a group were created.  He also noted that an advantage of a
dedicated newsgroup would be the centralization of all NQC questions/issues
in one place.

With over 3000 downloads of NQC and 100 people having sent Dave mail about
it
(including ports to other platforms, sample code, documentation, and web
page graphics), it seems like it has quite a following.


One thing, also IMO, lugnet.robotics is an
odd bird, since it is very mailing-list related[2], so I lean away from
adding subgroups under it.

But is it really so different from other ng's because of the second mail
gateway?  It's just like any other ng here, except it just happens to have
two mailing lists connected to it instead of only one, and the second
mailing list has a separate subscriber-base.

For example, here's a breakdown of the origins of the last 400 articles
posted to the .robotics ng (about 10 days' worth of articles):

     #      %   Message Origin                         Transfer method
   ---  -----   -------------------------------------  ---------------------
   258   64.5   mailto:lego-robotics@crynwr.com        SMTP (e-mail gateway)
   122   30.5   news://lugnet.com/lugnet.robotics      HTTP (web interface)
    13    3.2   http://www.lugnet.com/news/post/       NNTP (netnews)
     7    1.8   mailto:lugnet.robotics@lugnet.com      SMTP (e-mail gateway)
   ===  =====
   400  100.0

Fundamentally, from a message-origin point of view, the only difference
between lugnet.robotics and other lugnet.* ng's is that there are 4 lines in
the chart above rather than 3.

Wait -- actually, there is one other special ng with a mailing-list
gateway...

The San Francisco Bay Area LEGO mailing list (ba-lego@cinnamon.com), is
gatewayed with lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf.  Here's the breakdown for the 62
messages posted there:

     #      %   Message Origin                         Transfer method
   ---  -----   -------------------------------------  ---------------------
    30   48.4   mailto:ba-lego@cinnamon.com            SMTP (e-mail gateway)
    15   24.2   news://lugnet.com/lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf  NNTP (netnews)
    11   17.7   http://www.lugnet.com/news/post/       HTTP (web interface)
     6    9.7   mailto:lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf@lugnet.com  SMTP (e-mail gateway)
   ===  =====
    62  100.0


If a group is needed for general discussion of gory or non-gory robotics
meets (rather than specific events), then maybe
lugnet.robotics.competition makes more sense.

Hmm.  Well, it sure is tough to say at this point whether a general
competitions ng is needed (or desired), but I there's certainly enough
interest and desire (already now and only more in the future) for Robot
Arena in particular.  I'd probably only be tempted at this point to create a
general-competitions ng if it fell naturally ouf the structure.

BTW, what comes to mind if you see the name

   lugnet.robotics.games
or
   lugnet.robotics.events

as an alternative to the lengthy name lugnet.robotics.competition[s]?

Say, what about these--?

   lugnet.robotics.events
   lugnet.robotics.events.robot-arena

Hey, I think I actually that!


Steve
[1] In this case, the 'gaming' charter would be to cover physical events
of people getting together (either physically or through the internet)
and playing games or participating in competitions.  It would not
include discussion of various software or RPGs written to use LEGO.
[...]

If there was a .gaming or .games hierarchy, and RPGs weren't a part of it,
I wonder what other types of games and competitions would go there besides
robotics competitions?  For example, I have difficulty imagining people
having Cyber Slam tournaments.  :-)

On the other hand, I think it would be wicked cool someday to have server-
assisted chess tournaments or chess-by-mail.  With minifig representations,
of course.  :)

--Todd



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Informal CFD: robotics competition newsgroup(s)
 
(...) I could go either way. I suppose that a lugnet.comp.* hierarchy could expand someday, to cover various software packages and online stuff. No, wait. I changed my mind. How much potential is there for *computer-centered* discussion on lugnet? (...) (26 years ago, 19-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Informal CFD: robotics competition newsgroup(s)
 
If the new ng is specific to Robot Arena (which sounds like a cool idea), it could be named: lugnet.robot-arena lugnet.loc.robot-arena lugnet.events.robot-arena lugnet.gaming.robot-arena[1] or even: lugnet.robotics.robot-arena This is a hard call. (...) (26 years ago, 13-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.general)

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