RFD For rec.autos.simulators (Please read)

It is proposed that the following newsgroups be created to reduce bandwidth and allow easier filtering of subjects. rec.autos.simulators.racism.sucks rec.autos.simulators.binaries.indy rec.autos.simulators.sega.suck rec.autos.simulators.daytona.advocacy alt.fan.ymenard alt.fan.ymenard.hamster.duct.tape alt.fan.papyrus.suck.blow.hard alt.fan.papyrus.gods.gift Okay, a bit of fun. But seriously. As so much of this group has degenerated into the above, isn't it about time to go the way of other newsgroups and divide into several groups devoted to certain themes. For example: rec.autos.simulators.gp rec.autos.simulators.nascar rec.autos.simulators.indy rec.autos.simulators.multi (player) rec.autos.simulators (would remain for MISC posts) One criticism of the approach suggested above is that groups devoted to specific programs die a death some months after the software is released. However, we are still talking about GP2 (even GP3 now) in large numbers so that can't be justified. Also, although a lot of us probably like to listen in general to the whole group, I for one could do without the INDY and MULTI stuff (valid to many others though they are). I reckon a lot of other people might agree (with different preferences of course). Most good newsreaders do have filtering but the headers used here are just too varied to be filterable. People will x-post, yes, but also, those who genuinely want to talk about (for instance) multi-player stuff would know where the biggest like-minded audience is to be found. Anyway, I propose to test the water by offering an informal vote to the group. Send a blank email (header only) to the appropriate address below if you wish your voice to be heard amongst this din. A) Those in favour IN PRINCIPLE (subject to further discussion) of the B) and those of us who are HAPPYHAPPYHAPPY with the current SOA and No, this is not a troll of any kind. I am not operating a mailing list or spam operation or anything. I have previously posted over the last yes I did post a to a couple of threads in a manner that merely caused more wasted bandwidth. Sorry, OK? I definitely do not seek, want or desire to be our glorious LEADER (believe me that is the last thing on my mind after the last ten days on RAS). I merely want to read posts about one of my hobbies in peace and quiet. I think that we might be a touch more disciplined with specific groups than we are at the moment. I'll let the votes build up until Sunday night and post the results (After the GP and Nascar races!). If you don't want your email address shown in the votes summary then say so in your vote and I'll censor the address part of it. ** Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spammers **

I reckon the throughput here is about 100 messages a day tops. That's a pretty low volume newsgroup, and I certainly wouldn't want it split. It's a pretty easy matter to setup your news software to filter what you don't want, and that is much easier than creating five almost empty newsgroups. Unfortunately inconclusive. The people who respond will be those who want a change, the others will generally tend to skip over the post. Your results will be skewed in favour of those who want a change. It will still give an idea, but have to bear in mind the above. Cheers! John

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>It is proposed that the following newsgroups be created to reduce >bandwidth and allow easier filtering of subjects. >rec.autos.simulators.racism.sucks >rec.autos.simulators.binaries.indy >rec.autos.simulators.sega.suck >rec.autos.simulators.daytona.advocacy >alt.fan.ymenard >alt.fan.ymenard.hamster.duct.tape >alt.fan.papyrus.suck.blow.hard >alt.fan.papyrus.gods.gift >Okay, a bit of fun. But seriously. As so much of this group has >degenerated into the above, isn't it about time to go the way of other >newsgroups and divide into several groups devoted to certain themes. >For example: >rec.autos.simulators.gp >rec.autos.simulators.nascar >rec.autos.simulators.indy >rec.autos.simulators.multi (player) >rec.autos.simulators (would remain for MISC posts)

SNIP! Well, I'm not sure if you were around here about a year ago or not but we already went through an RFD for a newsgroup split, and at that time the concensus of most of the group was to not split. I, for one would vote AGAINST a split. First, ymenard and other bored schoolchildren like him would still post their flame trolling posts, but now they would crosspost it to ALL the split r.a.s.* groups, so in effect you would still end up having to avoid these types of posts but now in more than one group. Splitting is not going to stop any of that ***since people can still crosspost. The biggest problem with this split would be that each group would become isolated... I am mostly a open-wheel racer, but ended up buying Nascar2 and even Screamer2 after reading positive posts by fans of the Nascar2 and Screamer2, and am very glad I did or I would have missed some very enjoyable experiences with each title. What I am trying to say is that a split would not solve any of the problems you are trying to solve, rather you might consider using a kill-file to filter out subjects and people who you are not interested in seeing or reading about, and IMHO all these different interests existing in the same group actually make us BETTER because we may learn about some knowledge or subject which we previously had not considered useful on OUR type of sim but which actually turn out to be very enjoyable, or solve a problem we may be having in the sim we are interested in. Well there's my 2.5 cents on the subject, and hoping this will not degenerate into yet another flamefilled thread... I agree with you that some of the tone of the posts on r.a.s. lately has been pretty bad, probaly due to a lack of new racing sims and delay with the NRO, but let's hope we will have a new sim out soon to generate RACING related threads and that will hopefully bring up the signal/noise ratio on this group... until then my kill-file grows ever bigger ;-) Cheers. --John -- Note: my real e-mail address is below. Delete the asterisks. ------------------------------+-------------------------- Seattle, Washington USA. | http://www.cool.com/~jsilva

ROTFLMAO!!! I've got a few more that need to be created... alt.***.papyrus rec.autos.simulators.gimme rec.autos.simulators.flames rec.autos.simulators.hacking alt.binaries.simulators.illegal What, are you trying to run this newsgroup, Gary???? Have you consulted ymenard with this? Unbelievable... ;] I actually like it the way it is, and tend to agree with JW that there are really not that many posts to this group per day to warrant a split. rec.autos.sport.nascar has about 5 times as many posts per day, with about the same amount of irrelevant and unbelievable posts. Hence, R.A.S.N. could probably be split in this fashion... rec.autos.sport.nascar.real.honest.to.goodness.news (moderated) rec.autos.sport.nascar.dale.earnhardt.deity rec.autos.sport.nascar.no.he.isnt rec.autos.sport.nascar.yes.he.is rec.autos.sport.nascar.jeff.gordon.deity rec.autos.sport.nascar.jeff.gordon.cheater rec.autos.sport.nascar.jeff.gordon.sucks alt.binaries.***a.brooke.gordon rec.autos.sport.nascar.your.driver.sucks rec.autos.sport.nascar.ford.sucks rec.autos.sport.nascar.chevy.sucks rec.autos.sport.nascar.pontiac.sucks rec.autos.sport.nascar.where.is.dodge rec.autos.sport.nascar.sucks rec.autos.sport.nascar.everyone.sucks rec.autos.sport.nascar.flames rec.autos.sport.nascar.your.drivers.fault rec.autos.sport.nascar.your.driver.cant.drive rec.autos.sport.nascar.rasn.banner rec.autos.sport.nascar.rasn.meeting rec.autos.sport.nascar.whois.guy.in.victorycircle rec.autos.sport.nascar.bill.needs.haircut rec.autos.sport.nascar.abc.coverage.bullshit rec.autos.sport.nascar.cbs.coverage.bullshit rec.autos.sport.nascar.tbs.coverage.nonexistant rec.autos.sport.nascar.sillyseason rec.autos.sport.nascar.thisweeks.spoiler.height rec.autos.sport.nascar.whichcar.robert.pressley Cheers! -- **do not reply to email address in header** ??Jan Kohl?? **The Pits Performance Team** Computer Systems Programmer USAF Air-Ground Operations School Hurlburt Field, FL Castle Graphics - http://www.castlegraphics.com The Pits - http://www.theuspits.com

<snip> : Well there's my 2.5 cents on the subject, and hoping this will not degenerate : into yet another flamefilled thread... I agree with you that some of the tone : of the posts on r.a.s. lately has been pretty bad, probaly due to a lack of : new racing sims and delay with the NRO, but let's hope we will : have a new sim out soon to generate RACING related threads and that will : hopefully bring up the signal/noise ratio on this group... until then my : kill-file grows ever bigger ;-) Excellent observation. I've noticed this also. It seems that in between new releases of sims the conversation in r.a.s. turns down right ugly and off-topic. Well, at least we know people are still interested, I'm just curious as to what it is they are interested in when the level of civility degenerates. I guess most people must have mastered their last sim upgrade and are just bored and drop into r.a.s. for some stimulating entertainment... -- **************************** Michael E. Carver ************************* Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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>>Anyway, I propose to test the water by offering an informal vote to >>the group. Send a blank email (header only) to the appropriate >>address below if you wish your voice to be heard amongst this din. >Unfortunately inconclusive. The people who respond will be those who >want a change, the others will generally tend to skip over the post. >Your results will be skewed in favour of those who want a change. It >will still give an idea, but have to bear in mind the above. >Cheers! >John

Based upon the response after 18 hours, even if everybody who responded had been positively in favour of a split I would be saying no way. As you say, in any vote, only those that feel passionately about it will vote one way or the other, and without knowing the number of readers of the group I could not determine a turnout. This could only happen given a large turnout, and at least a 2/3 majority. Still, it's interesting to get the feedback, keep voting all. Gary (Who always did tend to go with the majority, it's safer) ** Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spammers **

I got one for rec.autos.sport.indy (I visit that group a lot): rec.autos.sport.indy.irl-sucks rec.autos.sport.indy.americans.only rec.autos.sport.indy.cart.fans.are.a.bunch.of.whiners rec.autos.sport.indy.aj.wants.to.fight.with.you rec.autos.sport.indy.i.cant.pronounce.this.guys.name rec.autos.sport.indy.stupid.irl.teams.advertising.here rec.autos.sport.indy.we.hate.road.courses rec.autos.sport.indy.detroit-sucks rec.autos.sport.indy.tony.george.sucks rec.autos.sport.indy.cheap.irl.teams rec.autos.sport.indy.roger.penske.is.evil rec.autos.sport.indy.aj.is.an.old.fart rec.autos.sport.indy.its.aries.fault rec.autos.sport.indy.we.hate.bernie.ecclestone rec.autos.sport.indy.former.winners rec.autos.sport.indy.garage.questions rec.autos.sport.indy.irl.diapers rec.autos.sport.indy.f1-sucks Christopher http://members.aol.com/ROSCS ----------------------------------------------------

[SNIP] Further to my original post about splitting.... So what you guys are saying is that we could do with splitting most other groups on the net similarly. Let's see, 24,489 groups on my ISP to date, that gives use how many!!! Better still, let's have one group each. We can post what we like to our OWN group, including binaries of hacked games and tracks if we want. It's the ultimate censorship, I just subscribe to the groups run by the people I respect....Great Idea. Rec.Autos.Simulators.Gary.Brown My bandwidth problems are solved ;-) ;-) ** Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spammers ** I am Homer of Borg. Resistance is....Ooooh, donuts.

I would guess that about 2/3 of the messages posted to this group (I'm just taking a guess) are about N2. Just start a new group for it. With N2 posts out of the way, it's easier to find what your looking for. Chris