From: dstamp@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng)
Subject: sci.vw.tech
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1991 05:05:09 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Nov29.050509.9776@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo


Does anyone know what's going on with the proposed sci.vw.tech newsgroup?
I for one am looking forward to using it, as I've been sorta restricting
some of my postings except for e-mail, as they aren't really always
right for this group.  Plus the long delays between posting and seeing
replies: hopefully the new group will be unmoderated, or setup to auto-
send messages.

BTW, I've been looking at other groups, and checking out what happens
in them with regards to VR-type stuff:

comp.graphics: fairly high traffic, but mostly questions about file formats
               or specific rendering technique questions.  Been reading it
               for 2 months and haven't seen anything worth posting about.

comp.visualization, comp.research:  no good stuff here. visualization is all
about presentation of scientific graphics, etc.  research is far too blue-sky
to help with low-level stuff

rec.games.programmer: a lot of people who know their graphics stuff, but
most of the traffic is questions from beginners, and the replies are
not usually unanimous (or, in some cases, even right) so be careful.

alt.cyberspace, alt.cyberpunk.tech: not much traffic, about split between
game stuff, "gosh" posting and real discussion.  I was doing yet another
graphics (Amiga vs PC) thread there last week, and the comments ranged from
knowledgable to flames.  I think this group (and the glove-list) are much
more focused.  If I see anyone good there, I invite them over here.

glove-list@karazm.math.uh.edu (mailing list): Some good stuff being
discussed here (most of the low-end VR stuff), but the controllers 
aren't pleased about the loss of Nintendo Power-glove focus.  Because
of this, some good stuff is going on by private e-mail, and everyone
else loses out.

Because of the stuff I learned during my monitoring of these (and other,
such as comp.amiga groups) I believe that we URGENTLY need the .tech
group set up, before the low-end VR community begins to fragment.  There
is no other place for it.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| My life is Hardware,                    |                              | 
| my destiny is Software,                 |         Dave Stampe          |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    |                              | 
| Anybody got a SDB I can borrow?         | dstamp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca |
__________________________________________________________________________


[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  There is a proposal on the table to create three
newsgroups out of the one we have now and the glovelist.  These would be:

	sci.virtual-worlds		general discussion
	sci.virtual-worlds.homebrew	"low-end" technical
	sci.virtual-worlds.professional "high-end" technical

The idea would be to give more specificity to the postings for persons
with particular interests.  These would be complemented by a mailing
list for those without USENET access.

What I am doing now is checking with the USENET moderators and adminis-
trators to see if this type of cloning is possible without going through
all the voting rigamarole, inasmuch as we've already demonstrated the
size of the respective audiences.  Be back to you shortly....  -- Bob
Jacobson]