James Pannozzi wrote:

> Excellent site with many good links but I'll skip the praise and get to
> criticism aimed at many such sites and not just this one. ...
> ....  But the working programmer needs examples, examples, examples with an
> honest discussion of the limitations, scope and applicability of the
> patterns  being used.

One traditional  technique of 'patterns movement' is to produce high quality
presentations (of patterns).   I believe many programmers would appreciate rapid
online discussions, questions, answers and critique, practical advice,
regardless of whether there are typos or 'style' errors in the presentation.

A typical PLoP conference organizes around 'writers workshops' for discussions
about patterns  (presented). The workshops serve a great need and are a great
improvement upon the more formal academic conferences. An online newsgroup could
allow many more to contribute and "be present", however.

The downside  newsgroups is that they often catch the 'flames'. This is a shame
when you're trying to discuss serious technical topics. On the other hand the
patterns mailing lists (I've seen)  don't seem to do much better either.

So I seriously think there's a need,  to have a patterns newsgroup.

Thanks for Your support
-Panu