Aihps3.185
net.news
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!ihps3!pcl
Mon Jan 11 23:06:56 1982
News Group Names: Confounding distribution with content
(long message)
All of the news group naming schemes that have been proposed so far, as
well as the existing system, combine two distinct pieces of information
that I believe would be better separated. The main information, which
is all that should be in the name of a news group, is the categorization
(and possibly sub-categorization) of the content of the news items.
Thus, we have 'taxes' and 'rec.ski'.
The other information, which I am proposing be separated out from the
first, is the range of distribution that news item is to receive.
Currently, this is encoded by the top-level categorization, leading us
here at Indian Hill (for example) to have ih.* news groups (just for
distribution to Indian Hill sites) and btl.* for Bell Labs wide stuff,
in addition to the net.* and fa.* groups shared with everyone.
The problem is that, although content and distribution are frequently
correlated (e.g. "it's in fa.sf-lovers iff it should go to every site on
the net" is almost always true), they aren't always. Whenever they
aren't correlated, we get a tendency towards a factorial combination of
news-groups X distribution-range, creating nightmares for Usenet site
administrators and probably not serving the best interests of the whole
community. If I, as a Usenet user, have decided that I am interested in
UNIX (TM) wizardry, I should be able to receive 1) an announcement of a
slide show here at Indian Hill on the origins of UNIX and 2) solicitations
for material to be included in the Bell Labs UNIX coloring book (proprietary,
and thus not to be discussed outside of the Labs), as well as 3) the full-
distribution net.unix-wizards. And I should get all of this from ONE entry
in my subscription list! (And conversely, I should be able to
contribute items on any topic to any Usenet community of which I am a
part, even if that topic is usually spread among a larger or smaller
community.)
Although my example above may be fictitious, I have seen a few instances
bordering on this, and expect to see more as use of the net on
multiple 'levels' grows. Shall we be prepared?
Paul Lustgarten
Bell Labs - Indian Hill
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