C-R-M Other methods of discussion...

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:49:16 -0700, CoyoteBoy


I've been posting to usenet since 1994, and the group spam
flooding is infrequent. Most people on the net don't have a clue
as to what usenet is. Even many of the MS MVPs in the "microsoft
communities" don't know that they are using a web based usenet
interface. ;)

Personally, I've found that the relative non-mainstream aspect of usenet
newsgroups is nice - it reduces the likelyhood of everyone with a browser
that just learned to write a bit of code getting on here and posting all
kinds of craziness (unless you look at the metalworking newsgroup, that
is! ) The sporgery took a dedicated effort.

Anybody remember Gopher ? Wasn't that kind of like a Search Engine before
Yahoo! came to life ?

IMHO -
jcd

Fair points. I do think that usenet is a relatively poor effort at a
community though, its like everyone staying in their house and talking
over SMS instead of going to the pub and getting photos, if you catch
my drift. Maybe I'm just frustrated at the lack of people posting here
and the lack of "robotics" friends I have lol.

Good points, as well. I completely understand. On the other hand, I have
made some very good contacts on here that I pay close attention to when they
answer my posts. Quality vs. quantity, I suppose. But then again, with more
quantity, you do have more to choose from!

Back to the issue at hand, though. Perhaps it would be best to start another
*moderated* newsgroup, and just invite everyone to move over to that one ? I
believe someone else already suggested that and also to cross-post to this
one. But even that brings up issues. For example, I would be willing to
moderate it, however, since I am also starting up a small robotics venture
myself, I would have to take extreme measures to ensure against
conflict-of-interest issues - whether real or perceived.

Anyway, who knows what "usenet" will look like in another 10 years ?

Regardless, keep posting your thoughts! It's where good ideas come from!
JCD

I think the only problem with this group is the lack of participants.
I know it took me while before I stumbled across this group. I
initially went to comp.robotics and said "Gee, that sucks".  It wasn't
until I was Googling for something that I realized that
comp.robotics.misc was the REAL group.

I like generic news groups because I am not forced to use somebody
else's choice of web interface software.

-howy

I suppose that is a good point yes.

In all honesty I was considering creating a site for likeminded people
on my server - it has some spare space and isnt running anywhere near
max - but I know, like most people, I am a member of many forums and
dont have time to spread my time even further to participate on a new
forum. As most people tend to be somewhat architecture specific and/or
area specific they tend to prefer sticking to existing sites with
existing communities.

Tis all fair enough, guess i was feeling cheesed off and like doing
something to fix it lol. I'll go back to google news :)

I will comment that I have started to use RSS feeds to
keep track of multiple robotics groups.  That way I use
one piece of software to keep track of what is going on
rather than having to have to visit multiple sites on a
regular basis.  Posting requires visiting the forum site,
I can live with that.

Some robotics sites have RSS feeds and some do not.
For example, Seattle Robotics has RSS, DPRG does not.
Alas, the one I have some level of control over (HBRC)
does not have RSS, so I am being a bit of a hypocrite.

-Wayne

So you're suggesting a semi-read-only group that displays threads from
all (or maybe a user-selected choice) of all robotics groups? I think
that would be cool since I am mostly as lurker anyway.

-howy

That would require effort to make that happen.  I would
appreciate it if somebody undertook that effort, but I
am not signing up.

Currently, I just sign up for as many robotics RSS feeds
as I can.  Here is my current list:

  Seattle Robotics:
    <http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/SeattleRobotics/rss>

  Society of Robots.Com:
    <http://www.societyofrobots.com/rss_SoR.xml>

  SDRS-List (some SPAM on this one):
    <http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/SDRS-List/rss>

-wayne

Such as under the robotics > Newsfeeds link on my site:
http://www.jbuckle.homeip.net/
?

(sorry, my keyboard went weird and I had actually had to
  reboot to fix it.)

Here are the rest of my Robotics RSS feeds:

   SFRSA:
     <http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/sfrsa/rss>

   ORE:
     <http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/ORE_bits/rss>

   Robots.Net:
     <http://robots.net/rss/articles.xml>

   Robots Dreams:
     <http://www.robots-dreams.com/index.rdf>

If anybody has any other robotics related RSS feeds that
they would like to share, please post to the list.

For example, if somebody knows how to get a DPRG RSS
feed, please let me konw.

-Wayne

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:01:59 GMT, "Wayne C. Gramlich"


One of my favourites:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ArtificialIntelligenceAndRobotics

Later,
Jon

--------------------------------------------------------------
   Jon Hylands      Jon@huv.com      http://www.huv.com/jon

  Project: Micro Raptor (Small Biped Velociraptor Robot)
           http://www.huv.com/blog

Spam flooding is infrequent yes, true. I just wonder if it is so
"elitist" in nature that we miss some good info from interesting
people. Of course it does run the risk of flooding with idiots if you
open it up other ways I agree.

Until the sporger starts putting C-R-M at the start of the messages it's
pretty easy to avoid it. In any case, if we all defect to some Web-based
group, then the sporger has won.

There are a lot of groups out there, but the good ones tend to be
specialized. I think that's a good thing. C.r.m. is a good resource for
general discussion -- hence the "misc" in the name. The Parallax forums
are probably the best for questions about the Basic Stamp or one of
their kits.

-- Gordon


CoyoteBoy wrote:

... And ... the script kiddie has been at it again.
Too bad these guys can't take that all "talent" and effort and do something
GOOD with it.
Or at least profitable. Do THAT and they will get a lot of respect. But not
this way ...

See what you mean, but I'm not here to fight a fight - just get on with
life - I have enough things that are difficult to read around without
adding another lol, Not everyone adds CRM, which means some interesting
posts go missing. I suppose I'm just wondering why we all hang on to an
archaic method, seemingly just because we don't want to lose it, not
because its best lol.


Yes, im starting to see this.

I'm on lots of robot lists. I promote the UNI annual MIniSumo Ship-In
contest, so I spread the word by posting on the lists, and I try to
keep my hand in when I can add to the various conversations, so I'm
not just a one-trick-pony.

All the other groups tend to have a localized bent. PARTS is Portland.
SRS is Seattle. DPRG is Dallas. And so on. The Robotics Club on Yahoo
is the only other group which is not associated with a local club, or
a particular robot type. You can often have a very interesting
conversation on a local group, and many posters may be from far and
wide, but I always have the feeling of being an outsider, unless I
actually attend that club (as I do DPRG).

The value of keeping c.r.m. IMHO is it is world-wide. If your interest
is broadly "robotics" as opposed to a particular club or specific
robot, this is the best place. It doesn't hurt that old doesn't
necessarily mean outdated, but venerable. This is a known place where
you get to talk to the experts sometimes, and that is very important.

--
Randy M. Dumse
www.newmicros.com
Caution: Objects in mirror are more confused than they appear.

I don't know if this spam crap is ever gonna go away, but it's been
bad
enough for the past month and more that I haven't even bothered to
try and sort the valid threads from the junk. So, I've just been
avoiding
c.r.m altogether, via groups.google.com web access.

I don't know if the spammers would catch onto it, but maybe we can
deal with the problem by adding something like  [RO] to the beginning
of valid posts/threads. As above.

Hmm. [RO] didn't seem to show up on the topic listings. Let's try
(RO).