Split general into multiple threads

[Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d]

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 17:07:54 Seb via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> I think we all agree that general is having to much traffic and
> according to CyberShadow [1] this again is just an approval
> issue, however I expect this a bit controversial, so please no
> OT! Only other category proposals.
>
> Proposed categories:
>
> - DMD
> - DRuntime
> - Phobos
> - Language design (or Idea pool)
> - D Foundation + resources
> - Events
> - Other (formerly known as General)
>
> I want to stress that whatever categories we pick, we have to
> adapt them anyways if we realize that something is noisy again or
> too silent.
>
> https://github.com/CyberShadow/DFeed/issues/66

It may be that we want to create another list or two for some specific
stuff, but trying to split stuff across a bunch of groups is going to cause
its own problems. We already have enough issues with folks posting in the
wrong group as it is (e.g. Learn questions keep ending up in the main
newsgroup). And any time that you have a thread with cross-cutting concerns,
you have problems, and they're only going to get worse the more lists
there are.

I'm honestly inclined to argue that the problem is not so much that we need
more lists so much as we simply have too much OT chatter going on
lately (which is not a problem that we've had on anywhere near this level in
the past).

So, while we may need another group or two for some specific stuff, I don't
think that we should be in a rush to split up the main newsgroup. As it is,
the Phobos list basically died off, because things that were being discussed
there needed to be discussed more widely. A bunch of specialized lists risks
having little to no traffic for what gets posted there. We've seen that in
the past. Heck, just a few months ago, the dlang-study group basically died
shortly after it was created. Nothing has been posted there in months.

If we create a new list, it needs to be for a specific purpose that is
either really isn't appropriate for general discussion, because it needs to
be separated out so that folks can have a low traffic to find it in (like is
the case with Announce), or because it's a topic with a lot of traffic in
its own right which makes sense separate from the main list. And very little
is going to match those criteria.

- Jonathan M Davis