discuss: HOWTO on setting up a NewsGroup Server
Subject:
Re: HOWTO on setting up a NewsGroup Server
From:
"Lloyd D Budd" ####@####.####
Date:
6 Aug 2002 20:47:55 -0000
Message-Id: <004c01c23d8a$7600f2b0$6b270109@torolab.ibm.com>
"Shuvam" ####@####.#### sent 20020806 3:22 AM
> I really liked your review. I presume you intend to continue after
> Chapter 4, and we're looking forward to it.
Depends...I will review if it is of interest to me.
> Is it okay if I discuss some of your review points with you, and we do a
> bit of back-and-forth on some of them, so that I get a better
> understanding of things? I don't know how this LDP review thing works,
> so I asked.
Of course, it is ok, and would be my pleasure. It was not an "official" LDP
review.
> > I was pedantic in my "editing" as it is in my nature...ignore what you
will,
>
> I like this. :) I think a minute spent choosing the right word now and
> then is worth the effort. However, many parts of the Usenet HOWTO are
> actually what I'd call a first draft, since we wanted to get something
> out the door by Monday 29 July (an internal deadline). We'll clean up
> even the little bits if you have the patience to point them out. :)
Excellent, and that is partially what lead to my initial confusion, as I
looked for a draft @
http://tldp.org/authors/inprogress.html , but I do think that your revision
is ready for public consumption -- in the right place.
> > > Table of Contents (ToC)
> > The links all go back to the 1st page.
>
> This I didn't understand at all. Since we wrote SGML and used the
> standard DocBook DTD, I presume the links in the PDF file are all
> whatever the standard processing does, right?
Sorry, I have no DocBook knowledge. Hopefully, someone else on list can
assist.
> One point we need to get clear is: who is the target audience for the
> Usenet HOWTO? We had assumed that the reader of this HOWTO will be
> someone who knows what the Usenet is, what value it brings, but not
> how it works internally and not how to set it up. He or she now wants
> to go about setting up a Usenet server. Therefore, we had decided to
> downplay the chapter on Usenet client software for instance, believing
> that the audience has already gone beyond being just a Usenet user. You
> appear to have a different perspective on the audience of this document.
No. You are the author, and that means your perspective is the correct
perspective. I do think that it would of value to make more clear who your
target audience is at the beginning of the doc. Also, I agree with your
recommendation on the name change.
> In fact, if we assume that we have to teach the audience to become a
> good Usenet user first, shouldn't we change a lot of our HOWTO, not just
> Chapter 10? We'll have to teach them about limiting the replication of
> his posts using the "Distribution:" header, cross-posting instead of
> multiple postings, issues of Netiquette, and so on. Should that be a
> part of this HOWTO?
But then your chapter 10 should be easy to write. Refer people elsewhere,
instead of the current content of the doc that could leads to confusion.
Reflecting on some of my comments. I believe that some of the comments
where a result of my confusion as to what I see as being to distinct
possible goals:
1. replication/copies of public Usenet newsgroups
2. creation of private Usenet newsgroups.
That are somewhat intermixed in what I have read.
Cheers,
Lloyd
