Creation of newsgroup uk.rec.lepidoptera

[Chris Raper]

On 24 Nov 1998 16:15:04 GMT, rnh at gmrc.gecm.com (Richard Herring)
wrote:
>In article <365ccec6.21896303 at wingate>, Chris Raper (triocomp at dial.pipex.com) wrote:

Hi Richard

>> Personally, I can't see the point in the uk group.
>> - It is going to be very poorly used - s.b.e.l is already pretty quiet

>Maybe so. 

Almost certainly so - especially during the winter! :-)

>There may be potential uk. users who don't use the international group.
>There may not. A vote will soon demonstrate how much real support it has.

On that point I agree - let everyone vote on it and we will all abide
by the verdict. If the group goes ahead I will certainly monitor and
post to it but I would rather have one group rather than two.

>> - It will cause a large number of cross-posts - due to the crossover
>> of interests with s.b.e.l
>I'm not convinced. Is this actually a demonstrable problem in any 
>comparable uk.* group with a worldwide equivalent?

Well, I am not too up on the technicalities but if someone cross-posts
a message to s.b.e.l because they think it has international or
scientific significance and someone on the list-server responds the
reply will not come back to u.r.l. because the listserver only gates
to s.b.e.l. 

In fact this raises the issue that if a list-server person wants to
vote on this group (and they have every right to) they will only be
able to do it via s.b.e.l because this is the only Usenet group they
can reach.

>> - It won't be carried on a list-server - so anyone in an organisation
>> that doesn't allow Usenet won't get it.
>That's true of the overwhelming majority of newsgroups. It's no 
>argument for not creating this one.

No but as I understand it a lot of people in the UK use s.b.e.l
because it is on a list-server and they don't have access to Usenet.
These people would not be able to have access to u.r.l and thus would
reduce your readership even more.

>> - With it's uk prefix it might illiminate contributions from UK
>> residents abroad or European contributors who might have relevant
>> observations to make. 
>It shouldn't. The general intent of the uk.* hierarchy is discussion of
>matters with a UK relevance, wherever the posters are geographically.

OK - I was unsure as to whether some foreign ISPs removed non-native
groups from their lists. That one I will grant you :-)

Chris R.