As a example of fragmented lists, I read a lot of Miniatures-related lists. Once there was Colonial Wars. Then Colonial Wars begat Victorian Adventures, because "Victorian Sci-Fi isn't Colonial". And it begat "Between the Wars", because "Colonial wargaming doesn't happen after the First World War". And Between the Wars was joined by "Back of Beyond", for lovers of a certain line of figures set in the Mongolia and Russia and Tibet. And those two were joined by "Dashing Adventures", because there is more to the world than Mongolia and Russia and Tibet. And Victrian Adventure begat Victorian Gothic, because people wanted to play with Vampires and Monsters and "those aren't Victorian Sci-Fi".
So there are half a dozen groups for wargaming the years 1850-1930 (Not counting American Civil Wars lists that I'm not subscribed to...). The same people are subscribed to most of those lists. There are occasional "take it to xyz list" comments, followed immediately by a wrangle over whether the topic really belongs "here" or "there".
Think how much you want to get Vingo's ads for tradetalk, or Unspoken Word's ads for their lines, and how many times you want to see them. Then imagine an "I just started playing HeroQuest and want to start up a game in Dragon Pass, how do I use the Clan Generator in Orlanth is Dead?" message, and think - Does this belong in the Newbie-friendly list, the Rules list, or the Sartar list?
My preferred option would be to compress the two current Y!Groups lists down to one. But I fear that such a sensible suggestion is far beneath contempt of the list.
Roderick
--- It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has done what he has done. - Richelieu
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