Afloyd.28
net.general
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!mhtsa!harpo!floyd!trb
Wed Jan 13 11:09:43 1982
Re: new newsgroup for word processors
Yes, short names are dumb, but I think a primo candidate for
net.jokes.q would be an explanation of why we are stuck with fourteen
character newsgroup names.  The "reason" is that we want to maintain
compatibility with the Rand MH system.  Would you believe it???
They should put that one on the "That's Incredible" tv show.

Also, if the group was called net.jokes.questionable, everyone would
get net.jokes.ques (truncated to 14), and people would start submitting
to net.jokes.que and net.jokes.q, etc. (it happenned with unix-wizar and
unix-wizards...)

Maybe net.jokes.q wasn't the right decision, q.net.jokes or ug.jokes
will probably be the eventual solution.  But at the time, it seemed
to me that the root part of the groupname was more sacred than the tail,
so I figured that I had more right (as a mortal) to suggest net.jokes.q than
q.net.jokes.  I still advocate getting rid of the "all" classification,
that way people who don't want to see ug-ly news won't be FORCED to see it.
(keep foo.all, just abolish all.foo and all).
       Andy Tannenbaum

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