Let's see if I can get this message through this time...
Our illustrious administrator writes:
>_____RULESET______ ______ERA_______ ________GENERAL________ ____DESIGN SIGS_>
>CT Classic Trav IMP 3rd Imperium ANN Announcements VDES Vehicle Des>
>MT MegaTraveller REB Rebellion Releases, Errata WDES Weapon Desi>
>HG High Guard TNE The New Era FLAME Flame/Hate Tirade CDES Char Design
>NE New Era Rules ____FICTION____ ADM Administrivia WDES World Desig>
>TCS Trillion FICT Stories GEN General, non- CAT Computer Ai>
> Credit Squadron AHIS Alternate specific stuff
>FFS Fire Fusion & Histories
> Steel GM Scenarios
>
>So folks, what do *you* think? [ ... ]
The more I think about it, the more I dread the proliferation of
categories. Categories that are too specific will tend to cause
confusion and/or threads which expand and contract into different
categories (seeing half a thread, especially alternating messages,
can be annoying).
Perhaps you should go back to a much simpler list, at least for
the non-general stuff:
CT Classic Traveller, includes HG, TCS, IMP
MT MegaTraveller, includes REB
TNE The New Era, includes NE, FFS
FICT Fiction, includes AHIS
SCEN Scenarios/Patrons/etc.
CAT Computer Aids
DES Designs, includes VDES, WDES(weapons), CDES, WDES(worlds)
SALE For Sale/Trade/Wanted
FLAME Flames (to /dev/null?)
GEN General, includes MISC (see below)
ADM Administrivia (see below)
ANN Announcements (see below)
To make it idiot-proof, I would suggest allowing several aliases for
some categories. For example, MISC should be an allowable alias for
GEN.
You probably don't want to allow people to unsubscribe to the ADM or
ANN categories. If you wish, you can limit posting access to them
(or you can trust us--it may be useful to be able to post things to
the entire TML on occassion). My interpretation of ADM/ANN is that
they should not carry threads (GEN would be used for that, or add a
TML thread for TML meta-discussions if you wish).
You will want to print the entire category list on every TML mailing
you send. If the list is short, this shouldn't be a problem. If it
is long, then the list is needed that much more. Consider that when
designing the list. With my list, the categories are obvious enough
that you can do it easily in one line (no need to show ADM/ANN):
TML Categories: CT, MT, TNE, FICT, SCEN, CAT, DES, SALE, FLAME, GEN
I really like the idea of allowing cross-posts by simply listing
multiple categories (eg: "CT/MT:" or "CT, MT:"), although I think
the TML digester will be a nightmare of a program. Once again, to
make it idiot-proof you will want to allow several ways to list
multiple categories. I would suggest converting any combination of
spaces, tabs, "and", "or", or non-colon punctuation into category
separators.
And one more thing to make the TML digester a REAL nightmare:
What some people will REALLY want is the opportunity to explicitly
EXCLUDE messages that are cross-posted to particular groups. For
example, I might want all messages in the CT and MT categories that
are NOT also in TNE, or I might want to specifically exclude SALE
or FLAME messages, even if they are cross-posted.
============================================================
And on a relatively related note:
I remember reading something about a TML World-Wide-Web site.
Could someone give me the address? We just got Mosaic up here and
I'd like to try it out.
,-----------------.
|Gerald S Williams|
|[email removed]|
| [phone removed] |
`-----------------'
_ | ____/ _ |
/ / / / /
/ / ____ | ____/
/ / / /
______/ ______/ __/
AT&T DSP tools development