csa2 unification (was Re: Shareware Solutions II)

[rubywand@aol.com (RUBYWAND)]

In article <501n8e$sst@news.vanderbilt.edu>, lesherjt@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
(Tilghman Lesher) writes:

>
>I know how important it is to support the businesses that support us,
>but as this is an advertisement, it crosses the "Netiquette" boundary
>of what's acceptable on this newsgroup.
>
>This posting should be on comp.sys.apple2.marketplace, not c.s.a2.


     Maybe so. On the other hand, many csa2 readers do not subscribe to
'marketplace. If product release announcements were confined to
'marketplace, many of us would never hear about new stuff. The same goes
for II publication 'info-mercials'.

     It may be time to reconsider the utility of csa2 sub-groups. Items of
general interest (such as ORCA, Platinum Paint, Spectrum, ... upgrades,
release of Golden Orchard 2, a new Alltech memory board, and info on II
publications) really do belong in main csa2. At present, many new product
announcements and related discussions end up in csa2 _and_ one or more
sub-groups.

     Unlike the situation in PC-land and, perhaps, Mac-ville, programming
is of interest to most csa2 subsribers. At present, discussions often
migrate back and forth between csa2 and csa2.programmer; and, many
postings appear in both groups.

     Similar problems show up in other areas; yet, the actual number of
sub-group postings is not overwhelming. In short, it probably makes good
sense to de-certify all subgroups except 'binaries:

Posters would no longer need to reel-off duplicates to make sure 'the
message gets out'.

Csa2 newbies would not need to be told that they should post a question to
comp.sys.apple2.wordprocessor.font.families.big.new (or whatever).

Users who subscribe to several subgroups would not need to steam while
2nd, 3rd, ... duplicates download and then go through the bother of
weeding them out. 

     In fact, a user who, today, subscribes to csa2 and any csa2
subgroup(s) would, most likely, experience a significantly more friendly
environment. There would be a savings in net time and much less off-line
hassle with a unified csa2.
         

Rubywand