Split this C# newsgroup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Skc
  • Start date Start date
S

Skc

To whoever the Administrator is

I am a newbie. I find this newsgroup is too active and daily there are a
lot of postings. Does take a lot of time to browse thru the messages.
Can we at least split this newsgroup into 2 or 3 groups like:

- Newbie (Newbies will post and browse here)
- Programming (More experienced users)
- 3rd Party Tools
- Watercooler (Offtopic)

The most pressing would be to have a NEWBIE group so that we newbies
don't have to look at mind-boggling advance questions and feel lost...

Regards
Skc
 
Skc said:
The most pressing would be to have a NEWBIE group so that we newbies
don't have to look at mind-boggling advance questions and feel lost...
Click to expand...

I suppose it'd be asking for too much to just have you read topics that are
related to problems you're experiencing.
 
Skc said:
To whoever the Administrator is

I am a newbie. I find this newsgroup is too active and daily there are a
lot of postings. Does take a lot of time to browse thru the messages.
Can we at least split this newsgroup into 2 or 3 groups like:

- Newbie (Newbies will post and browse here)
- Programming (More experienced users)
- 3rd Party Tools
- Watercooler (Offtopic)

The most pressing would be to have a NEWBIE group so that we newbies
don't have to look at mind-boggling advance questions and feel lost...
Click to expand...

I think the biggest "problem" here is that most of the posts in this
group are off-topic. This group is, as far as I know, about the C#
programming language only. A lot of people post general .NET questions
here (okay, I've been guilty of this in the past) that should really be
posted in 'microsoft.public.dotnet.general'.

What percentage of threads here are *on*-topic, do you think? I'd guess
at about 10%; maybe less.
 
There are logical ways to filter the information for what you want.

1) Go to Google and enter specific search criteria. This way you can find
information about what you specifically need to know. If you have questions
about something, so has someone else in the past.
2) If you post a question to the group, use Google to search on your name
and filter on the date so that you can see your recent posts along with any
replies.
 
C# Learner said:
I think the biggest "problem" here is that most of the posts in this
group are off-topic.
Click to expand...

I'd have to take issue with the numbers there, from what I've seen there's
no where near that many off topic posts.
This group is, as far as I know, about the C#
programming language only. A lot of people post general .NET questions
here (okay, I've been guilty of this in the past) that should really be
posted in 'microsoft.public.dotnet.general'.
Click to expand...
I'd agree slightly in that if you have a syntax problem specific to VB.NET
, it's the more appropriate forum. However, it's hard to imagine something
other than very specific VB.NET issues that don't fit in here just as well
as general. Moreover, a lot of people cross post b/c the content relates to
more than one area. And in many cases, even those can be of benefit to
people here.
 
Skc said:
To whoever the Administrator is

I am a newbie. I find this newsgroup is too active and daily there are a
lot of postings.
Click to expand...
What is too active? What's the downside?


Does take a lot of time to browse thru the messages.
Can we at least split this newsgroup into 2 or 3 groups like:
Click to expand...

Where do you draw the line with Newbie for instance? newbie really depends
on who you are compared against don't you think?
 
If there is a need for a split, I would suggest splitting based on areas
within C#.

1. C# Language
2. UI (WinForms)
3. Security
4. Networking
5. Native APIs
6. Core (including threading, timers, processes, etc.)
7. Misc.

-vJ
 
Vijaye Raji said:
If there is a need for a split, I would suggest splitting based on areas
within C#.

1. C# Language
Click to expand...

You're in it :-)
2. UI (WinForms)
3. Security
microsoft.public.dotnet.security

4. Networking
5. Native APIs
microsoft.public.dotnet.interop

6. Core (including threading, timers, processes, etc.)
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework

7. Misc.
Click to expand...

microsoft.public.dotnet.general

-Rob Teixeira [MVP]
 
I'd have to take issue with the numbers there, from what I've seen there's
no where near that many off topic posts.
Click to expand...

You must be looking at this group through a filter then. About half
the posts in this group are about Windows Forms, Web Forms, the IDE,
or general programming topics.
 
I like the fact that this group is active. It means there are plenty
people around to answer so there aren't many messages that never get any
reply. Yes, there are a few posts that might be more appropriate in the
windowsforms, controls, and general groups, but most of those involve C#
code, in which case, this group isn't off topic.

Read the news like a news paper, you read the interesting bits and ignore
the rest.

Happy coding!
Morten Wennevik [C# MVP]
 
I am a newbie. I find this newsgroup is too active and daily there are a
What is too active? What's the downside?
Click to expand...

As I have said, the downside is that I would need to spend more time than
otherwise necessary to scan the Subject field, to see whether it's something
I can learn as a newbie. If it's already split, it would be easier.

Where do you draw the line with Newbie for instance? newbie really depends
on who you are compared against don't you think?
Click to expand...

Most folks would know whether or not he's a newbie. Of course there will be
some cross-posting, but that shouldn't matter too much.

Regards
Skc
 
As with the documentation there is too much of it all. Split this group into as many sub groups as may be appropriate, but leave the option of viewing them in all in a .csharp supergroup. And make the number of items per page longer. I am spending more time searching for info rather than reading it...

----- Morten Wennevik wrote: -----

I like the fact that this group is active. It means there are plenty
people around to answer so there aren't many messages that never get any
reply. Yes, there are a few posts that might be more appropriate in the
windowsforms, controls, and general groups, but most of those involve C#
code, in which case, this group isn't off topic.

Read the news like a news paper, you read the interesting bits and ignore
the rest.

Happy coding!
Morten Wennevik [C# MVP]
 
Frosty wrote:

And make the number of items per page longer.
Click to expand...
<snip>

Use an newsreader, instead, to browse the groups, and then you needn't
put up with any such restriction.
 
Hi,

I believe that the norm is, I'm programming in C# , I want to do something
and I don't know how, let's post in the C# group.

And I see nothing wrong with that in the first place; I have came across
problems/solutions just because of this that have helped me a lot.



Cheers,
 
<"Ignacio Machin \( .NET/ C# MVP \)" <ignacio.machin AT
dot.state.fl.us> said:
I believe that the norm is, I'm programming in C# , I want to do something
and I don't know how, let's post in the C# group.
Indeed.

And I see nothing wrong with that in the first place; I have came across
problems/solutions just because of this that have helped me a lot.
Click to expand...

Sure - although you could have come across the same posts if they'd
been made to more specific groups and you'd subscribed to those groups
because you were interested in them.

The trouble is that it means there's no group for "C# as a language",
and a lot of posts which actually have *nothing* to do with C# itself
and could easily be answered by people who know the framework but not
C# don't get those answers.

I know there's no way that people are going to start posting in the way
I'd prefer (using the appropriate .framework, .windowsforms etc groups
instead of the C# group when the question is not C#-specific) but I do
think it would be a better situation if they did.
 
Ignacio said:
Hi,

I believe that the norm is, I'm programming in C# , I want to do something
and I don't know how, let's post in the C# group.

And I see nothing wrong with that in the first place; I have came across
problems/solutions just because of this that have helped me a lot.
Click to expand...

I mostly check for unanswered postings in the morning and try to answer
them. Today I saw just unanswered postings with questions which are
completely irrelevant for C#. Some are focussed on winforms, some are
remoting, some are soap (!) related some are windows setup related etc.

It is becoming a bit of a problem. Not only is it not that fun to weed
through unanswered postings and discover that almost all of them are in the
wrong newsgroup, it also eats time away from my time that I have to answer
postings. This group is not meant for 'everything .NET related'. It's for C#
related material. I find replies as 'you post in the wrong newsgroup, go
away' not appropriate without answering the question at hand, however I
decided to ignore the completely off-topic questions for now.

For the people with questions some tips:

1) go to google groups (not google web, google groups):
http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
2) type in your question
3) check only threads with 2 or more messages and in newsgroups which are
related to the technique you're working with, i.e. rec.humor is not a
newsgroup likely to have your answer
4) if you can't find the answer, pick the newsgroup related to your PROBLEM:
winforms, asp.net, remoting, framework, ado.net etc. and ask your question
there, provide code if possible.


FB
 
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