From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Message-Id: <201005142018.o4EKIag07340@momjian.us>
Subject: Re: List traffic
In-Reply-To: <4BED31F30200002500031751@gw.wicourts.gov>
To: Kevin Grittner <Kevin.Grittner@wicourts.gov>
Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 16:18:35 -0400 (EDT)
CC: "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@hub.org>, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>,
	pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org, Greg Sabino Mullane <greg@turnstep.com>
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Kevin Grittner wrote:
> Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>  
> > I can't imagine that there's not going to need to be a "catchall"
> > list for problems that don't fit into any of the subcategories.
> > 
> > More generally, we already have most of the lists that you
> > suggest, and we already know that people frequently don't find the
> > most appropriate list for postings.  I don't think getting rid of
> > -general would help that in the least.  The way to cut down on
> > misposted traffic is to make the set of categories smaller and
> > simpler, not to redouble our efforts to persuade people to use the
> > same or even more categories.
>  
> Well, redoubling our current efforts to direct people to more
> specific lists would accomplish nothing, since doubling zero leaves
> you with zero.  The description of -general includes:
>  
> | General discussion area for users. Apart from compile, acceptance
> | test, and bug problems, most new users will probably only be
> | interested in this mailing list
>  
> Given that, the fact that -admin, -novice, -sql, and -performance
> collectively get as many posts as -general suggests that people are,
> in fact, making some effort to find a list which seems a good fit. 
> Perhaps if the description of -general was changed to suggest it
> *was* a catch-all for posts which don't fit the other lists, things
> would improve.

FYI, I usually email new people privately that cross-posting a question
can cause the question to be ignored.  They usually respond positively
and avoid it in the future.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com