Acwruecmp.30
net.news
utzoo!decvax!cwruecmp!ordy
Sat Dec 26 13:58:30 1981
Proposed Standards
We have no major complaints with the proposed USENET policies
put forth by cbosgd!mark. Some comments, however.
1) For sites thinking about connecting to USENET, and retransmitting
news/mail, it would be nice to generate some estimates of cost
involved, in terms of uucp connect time per day; CPU usage; and
disk space required to support it all. Our experience has shown that
uucp/news has become a 'major user' of our system. Some upfront
estimates would help new sites understand what they are getting into.
For example, would somebody like to guess what it costs (phone, cpu, disk)
to send this one message to all sites? (and keep it for a month)
I like the idea of informally pushing each site retransmitting news
to two others, it insures growth capacity.
2) What has happened to the fa.unix-wizards newsgroup????? In the past
month I have submitted at least four items to that group that have
never made it out on the nets network. It appears as if others faced
with the same problem are submitting directly to net.unix-wizards
which in turn has others complaining about submitting directly to it.
I hope that I have no problem following common protocols/practices,
AS LONG AS THEY WORK. I personally find the problems with 'unix-wizards'
to be much more serious than any problems with net.jokes.q.
If I have a hard time 'hacking' my system, few jokes are funny.
I have just seen some test messages coming from fa.unix-wizards. I hope
this is a sign of a return. Now if only my messages are there!
3) Speaking as one who is not going to USENIX, because I don't care
to, (I could get a paid trip if I asked) I am sure it will be
difficult to get a majority feeling in a few days, and the discussion
will be back on news, although the different opinions will no
doubt be firmly crystallized.
I only say this to lead into the next item.
But before that... For those who want to wait till the meeting to
discuss this. I submit that if it takes an across the country meeting
to settle the issues at hand, we are in big trouble (see end of this
message). Also, for those worried about the number of machines effecting
the respect and influence of the each site/speaker, if anything the
in person meeting will have the most problems. It's the old loudest
talker and prettiest face that sways opinions. I would think that this
neutral medium would be an ideal place to judge only on content, not
on packaging.
4) There was a recent comment that said words to the effect of:
'To bad we cannot take a vote over the news network'. Personally
I would like to see a mechanism implemented to allow for automatic
opinion polling over USENET, both signed and unsigned. Multiple
choice questions could be automatically sent out, answered, and
returned and tabulated. I feel that an important part of this network
is to let sites get data on a range of topics, and what is so 'slick'
about it is that we can get it from people in the same boat.
Obviously the current mechanisms can support this, however it is
rather informal, and I am sure that alot of people have comments/opinions
that they would rather not voice openly, it's like amateur and C.B.
radio, alot of listeners, few talkers. Soon it could be:
You have mail
You have news
You have a poll
For anyone who has a similar feeling, I would be willing to discuss how
to go about implementing such a system, built on top of the current one.
5) Personally I have problems with the following suggestion, however,
has anyone thought of encrypting news catagories as a means of
restricting access? If 10 sites want to pass around net.blowup.BTL
and some find the contents objectionable, encryption might be a
solution. It's like mailing in a plain brown wrapper.
(Now I can wait for the screams)
Thank you all for listening to me. Personally I like the
current name, and methods of starting newsgroups, although the
1 week required to pick a name (net.circus... net.bigtop... net.bozo)
is a bit much. Perhaps the more important question is where is this
facility leading in terms of the overall intrusion of computers into
our lives. As time goes on, other networks, with different charters
will interface to USENET (???) through special 'gateways', adding to
the political fun. I have already noticed that the amount of non-technical
news is starting to swamp the straight Unix stuff. To the bean counters,
is there any real difference between passing a cookie recipe across
the country and a dirty joke? It is all 'non-essential' (or is it?).
How much time does the average news reader/writer spend with news each
day?
Greg Ordy
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Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.
