The newsgroup will serve as a place where newbies can ask questions.
While this may mean that people will speak out of ignorance, we have
to tolerate that. Telling people that they should "listen and reflect
and learn" while the experts talk is a sure fire way of getting a
reputation as a group of high brows. I know I would be turned off.
> Mailing lists provide an interesting `energy barrier', in that a
> contributor has to explicitly ask someone to be added to the list. A
> tiny barrier, but enough to filter out many of the chatty dilettantes.
We can still use the mailing list for development and/or design
discussion.
> But they demand some work from
> a moderator. I'd suggest that if a Python newsgroup is felt to be
> really necessary, that a moderator be solicited from the members of
> python-list.
Moderating the newsgroup would be, IMHO, the kiss of death.
First, it would cut back on the flow of information. If someone
asks a question that has been asked before, so what? It gets answered
again, and new people can read the response.
Second, it would make the language look less popular, and may turn
off people. If you joined comp.os.foobar and saw 3 or 5 messages,
would you think it was any good?
Third, it would cut response time on requests for help. VERY
important IMHO.
Fourth, the traffic probably won't be that bad anyway, so what
would be the point? And if it is - great! I want to see lots
of postings, signs of growing popularity.
And last - does anyone *really* want to moderate a newsgroup? Our
time would be better spent writing modules and improving the
language than approving messages.
If we create the group, and if the traffic gets high, we can
always split off another group.
Off topic - I do think that the RFD can go out *before*
1.0.0 gets officially released.
Steve