Herein are the anonymized results from a straw poll conducted during July 2001 on comp.lang.haskell, possibly to be gatewayed to a mailing list. Jeffrey M. Vinocur --------------------- I think this is a good idea, and would vote ``yes''. Appropriate gatewaying from a mailing list would also be positive (I often read mailing lists which are gatewayed into news). --------------------- Yes, I want a separate newsgroup for Haskell. --------------------- YES. --------------------- Yes. --------------------- I would vote NO on comp.lang.haskell: The traffic on comp.lang.functional IMO isn't high enough to warrant a split. Also, the Haskell-related threads in c.l.f are much more interesting when OCaml, Erlang, ML, and Scheme fans contribute. Of course if the group passed I'd subscribe to it ... --------------------- Yes. --------------------- NO, I don't think the separation will benefit the Haskell community. The exchange of ideas is better. --------------------- My vote: NO Haskell infrastructure is in too bad shape at the moment, e.g. no working GHC5 for Windows. The artifically enhanced exposition may give a bad impression to first time users. --------------------- Yes, provided the groups is gatewayed to a mailing list. --------------------- i think having a haskell newsgroup is a great idea. --------------------- what are the advantages or disadvantages of gatewaying to a mailing list? I would vote with "Yes" or with an "Yes, provided it's ...". --------------------- yes, with gateway --------------------- I will vote "NO" on comp.lang.haskell if the mailing list is proposed to be relayed to the new group. Otherwise, I will abstain. --------------------- "Yes" My reasons: - all the Haskell stuff should be in one place - mailing lists are a hassle --------------------- "YES". start a hakell news group. I can't subscribe to the haskell mailing list because too much stuff goes by and I only look at it infrequently. --------------------- I would vote yes. --------------------- If it were to be gatewayed to a list, Haskell Cafe seems the obvious choice. --------------------- "Yes, provided it's gatewayed to a mailing list" --------------------- Yes, provided it's gatewayed to a mailing list. --------------------- Hi, in a comp.lang.haskell CFV I'd vote no, for three reasons. First, even the combined volume of c.l.functional's Haskell-related traffic plus the Haskell mailing lists is not really sufficient to sustain comp.lang.haskell newsgroup. Second, discussion on c.l.f is greatly enhanced by the presence of a substantial body of people who are experienced users of a pure, lazy language. The discussion on c.l.functional is IMO of higher quality than in (for example) comp.lang.ml -- in large measure this is because of the presence of ML, Haskell (and exotica like Mercury!) people all in the same group. Third, gatewaying between the Haskell mailing lists and the newsgroup is likely to reduce the quality of the Haskell-related discussion. There will be a fair amount of spam on an unmoderated newsgroup, and relaying that back into the mailing list will tend to drive people away from the Haskell mailing lists. However, failing to gateway will split conversations and can make finding good discussion harder. The only way out is moderating the proposed comp.lang.haskell, and that's a rather major investment in time for someone who could be doing something useful -- like hacking Haskell code! Sorry to disagree, but I hope this helps! --------------------- I would vote for comp.lang.haskell, which I think is long overdue. I tried to do something about this a few years ago, but no-one showed interest. From time to time, Simon Peyton Jones complains about the volume of traffic on the list, then it drops a bit, then of course it rises again later. The main reason I would like a news group is that I am currently subscribed to the mailing list, and I would like to have *news* (which is what the list really is) in my news reader, not filling up my mail box. For the last several years, the Haskell mailing list traffic has swamped the rest of my mail. --------------------- I support this and will vote 'yes'. --------------------- My opinion is: it works fine as it is now. For me, it would only make it more uncomfortable having to read yet another newsgroup. However, with today's technology it is trivial to: * make a newsgroup appear as a mailing list * make a mailinglist appear as a newsgroup * make two mailinglists appear as one etc. (In fact, I merge haskell and haskell-cafe already into one mailing list with a separate Inbox, so it looks just like a newsgroup.) So it really does not matter so much to me. One things that would have to be made clear is the rationale behind each of the three: haskell@haskell.org haskell-cafe@haskell.org comp.lang.haskell When to send messages to which? --------------------- Yes. Would prefer mailing list to be gated, but would still vote yes even if it wasn't. --------------------- I don't think there's a need (yet) for a separate comp.lang.haskell. However, in c.l.ml, there's even less traffic than in a would-be c.l.haskell, so a newgroup wouldn't be unjustified either. In any case, I'm quite wary of the idea of gatewaying some mailing list from/to a newsgroup in any case, including this one. I personally feel that still many of the Haskell related discussions in c.l.functional are discussions about functional programming itself, just using Haskell as its vehicle. In a CfV, I'd probably either abstain or vote yes (strange as it may sound, but I wouldn't want to spoil a new group if there are others who want it and no strong reasons against it). I'd probably vote against a mailing-list <-> newsgroup gateway, be it uni- or bidirectional. --------------------- My choice is "Yes, but I'd prefer the gateway both directions". Reason: Assume I want to participate (i.e. read and write) both in the mailing list and in the newsgroup. With a one-way gateway, I have to subscribe to both. The result is that I'll see the newsgroup messages twice when I read the mailing list. I could avoid reading messages twice by reading the mailing list first, but then if I want to reply to a newsgroup message I'd have to go do comp.lang.haskell and find the message there to be able to reply to it in both forums. --------------------- I abstain, but I think if you create a newsgroup, it should be a gateway to the Haskell mailing list or the haskell-cafe list. --------------------- Yes, and gateway to a mailing list (haskell-cafe would be a good choice). --------------------- briefly, I vote YES. I'd like to have the newsgroup "comp.lang.haskell" as a replacement for the mailing list "haskell-cafe" to discuss Haskell topics which are of interest for a particular class of Haskellers. The mailing list "haskell@haskell.org" should stay as it is, for pointing out important statements or asking for urgent help concerning Haskell. It should not be related to a newsgroup. There should be someone who eliminates spam from "comp.lang.haskell" regularly. Companies that hire spammers for advertisement on the newsgroup should be branded on a WWW-page. --------------------- No, against comp.lang.haskell. --------------------- "Yes + gatewayed to a mailing list nice but not essential" --------------------- Yes! --------------------- I read your article in news.groups, not comp.lang.functional, if that makes a difference. I don't know very much about functional languages in general or Haskell in particular, but I'd probably vote "Yes" if comp.lang.haskell were put to the vote. It sounds like a good idea if, as you say, there is enough volume in place. I probably wouldn't read the group, however. ---------------------