Re: LI traffic and a proposal

[Sudhakar Chandrasekharan <thaths@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Atul Chitnis proclaimed:
> 1. Make the main LI list a read-only announcement-only list, used for
>    posting LI organisational news, briefs, FAQs, summaries, etc.

Considering how the LI, LI-help split failed last time this becomes almost
mandatory to do.

> 2. Create several new lists, making sure that the names are descriptive
>    enough to ensure that people post to the right list. Suggestions are
>    linux-india-technical, linux-india-business, linux-india-advocacy, etc.

I have given some thoughts to this and here are the ones I can think of:

LI		Announce only moderated list.  aka LI-announce.  Posts to this list
will be go out to everyone in all the lists (care will be taken to send one
email per address).  Posts will be heavily moderated and only absolutely
essential ones will be sent through to the lists.

LI-advocacy	List for advocating Linux in India.  Press people like
Fredrick, the PCQ editors etc. would probably want to subscribe only to
this.  aka LI-press

LI-install	Installation woes

LI-setup	Configuration of various pieces of software.

LI-X		Questions about installing and configuring Xfree86 and SiS cards.

LI-networking	Network configuration, PPP, VSNL etc.

LI-programmers	Move the egroups.com list to lists.linux-india.org

LI-misc		Anything that does not fall under any other category.

LI-admins	A controversial closed list.  A forum for coordinating between
coordinators of the various regional ILUGs and other friends of Linux in
India.  

LI-jobs		A mailing list to look for and post job openings.

Things we could consider:

LI-security
LI-news		Newsclips about Linux in India
LI-I18n		Internationalization / Localization of Linux OS and applications
for India

Things that I don't think are right:

LI-commercial / LI-business:	Too broad.  And what is the point in GT
enterprises posting to it if they are unable to reach a big audience?
LI-technical:	Every luser tends to think that their question is technical.

acctive@xxxxxxxx wrote:
> Somehow we need to automate the list(s) as much as possible. Can the list
> robot be programmed to scan predetermined subject 'keywords' ....like
> SiS6215, kppp,  ;-) ....and redirect mail to the appropriate list(s). The
> keywords can be made available on linux-india webpage

Currently there is no simple fool-proof way of doing this.  So don't expect
this any time soon.

Indra wrote:
> May I suggest something more like having a posting policy which 
> requires the poster to prefix the subject line with a certain 
> key-word....eg....
> 
> [INSTALL]       dealing with install issues.
> [VIDEO] for video h/w setup/trouble-shooting, 
> [SAMBA] Specific Samba related stuff
> [EMUL]          emulators, VMWARE, Bochs et al.
> [X SETUP]       installation, fine-tuning, upgrading. 
> [INET]          Internet related stuff --> mail servers, dns, dialup connectivity -- POTS, ISDN etc. or "I can't browse"
> [NW]            Networking related
> [LINHCL]        Linux HCL, questions like does this/that card work? will that cd-writer/ISDN router/printer work under linux??
> [MISC]          those that are difficult to classify into any particular category

I have rolled some of your suggestions into my proposal.  However a prefix
is not a good idea, IMO.  Mainly because we want to keep the policies to a
minimum so that etiquette policing stays at a minimum.  The more complex
the policies the higher chance that someone or the other regularly breaks
policy.

Manoj wrote:
>  Deciding the focus and charter of the new lists is critical to
>  the success of this. To those of you who have been through the great
>  usenet renaming (circa '86, IIRC), that is what took the longest
>  time.

Very important point that I think all of us have to spend some time
thinking about.  If we design the split well we will be successful in the
long run.

Some more opinions of mine:

* A charter of the various lists is very important.  Let us spend some time
to iron the kinks out in a charter.  I will work on a charter over the
weekend and post it.  Would appreciate comments / suggestions / criticisms

* Our lists also need a posting policy.  Here are the things that need to
be in the policy:
	+ Most lists will be closed to posting by subscribers only.  This will
prevent spamming.
	+ People, especially old timers, when responding to an off-topic mail will
reply back to the author, Cc-ing the appropriate mailing list.
	+ No fancy non-plain-text (read HTML, vCards, msTnef, attachments etc.)
emails will be allowed.
	+ All mails to multiple LI mailing lists will be filtered.

* All of the major lists listed above will be available in the -digest
form.

* Needless to say, the mailing list archive will reside under
http://lists...org/

* An easy to use HTML form to subscribe to one or more lists will be
provided off the above website.  To see what I mean take a look at
http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe

Thaths
-- 
  "Hey, we just got away with murder. And it was so easy.  Y'know,
      I never liked that wiener Milhouse." -- Homer J. Simpson
Sudhakar C13n http://people.netscape.com/thaths/ Lead Indentured Slave