The Importance of Terminology's Quality

[szr]

Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> szr wrote:
>> Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>> szr wrote:
>>>> Peter Duniho wrote:
>>>>> On Fri, 30 May 2008 22:40:03 -0700, szr <szrRE at szromanMO.comVE>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>>>>> Stephan Bour wrote:
>>>>>>>> Lew wrote:
>>>>>>>> } John Thingstad wrote:
>>>>>>>> } > Perl is solidly based in the UNIX world on awk, sed, } >
>>>>>>>> bash and C. I don't like the style, but many do.
>>>>>>>> }
>>>>>>>> } Please exclude the Java newsgroups from this discussion.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Did it ever occur to you that you don't speak for entire news
>>>>>>>> groups?
>>>>>>> Did it occur to you that there are nothing about Java in the
>>>>>>> above ?
>>>>>> Looking at the original post, it doesn't appear to be about any
>>>>>> specific language.
>>>>> Indeed.  That suggests it's probably off-topic in most, if not
>>>>> all, of the newsgroups to which it was posted, inasmuch as they
>>>>> exist for topics specific to a given programming language.
>>>> Perhaps - comp.programming might of been a better place, but not
>>>> all people who follow groups for specific languages follow a
>>>> general group like that - but let me ask you something. What is it
>>>> you really have against discussing topics with people of
>>>> neighboring groups? Keep in mind you don't have to read anything
>>>> you do not want to read. [1]
>>> I very much doubt that the original thread is relevant for the Java
>>> group.
>>>
>>> But the subthread Lew commente don was about Perl and Unix. That is
>>> clearly off topic.
>>
>> I agree with and understand what you are saying in general, but
>> still, isn't it possible that were are people in the java group (and
>> others) who might of been following the thread, only to discover
>> (probably not right away) that someone decided to remove the group
>> they were reading the thread from? I know I would not like that,
>> even if it wasn't on topic at the branch.
>>
>> Personally, I find it very annoying to have to switch news groups in
>> order to resume a thread and weed my way down the thread to where it
>> left off before it was cut off from the previous group.
>
> I am relative tolerant towards threads that are a bit off topic, if
> the S/N ratio overall is good.

Agreed.

[...]

If a thread, that is cross-posted, branches off on a tangent that has 
nothing to do with one or more groups what so ever, then yes, it makes 
sense to prune the 'newsgroup:' list / set follow ups, but in this case, 
someone made one mention or so of 'Perl', which was being used as an 
example, and someone (lew) moved to have the Java group removed.

There was little reason to cut off the thread, when people very well may 
have been following it, over the utterance of one word, which was being 
used as an example. The bulk of the thread had to do with general 
programming, and suddenly writing the name of a language doesn't mean 
it's way off on a tangent.

I hope this clears up some waters.

Regards.

-- 
szr