AdadlaA.98
net.misc
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!cbosg!teklabs!tekmdp!dadlaB!dadlaA!steve
Mon Mar 15 21:56:49 1982
Trivia on the Net
so /usr/pla/intspc/nroff.h
I am beginning to wonder about USENET. I thought it was
supposed to represent electronic mail and bulletins among a
group of professionals with a common interest, thus representing
fast communications about important technical topics. Instead
it appears to be mutating into electronic graffiti.
If the system did not cost anything, that would be fine,
but for us here at Tektronix, at least, it is costing us
better than $200 a month for 300-baud long distance to
copy lists of people's favorite movies, and recipes for goulash,
and arguments about metaphysics and so on. Is this really appropriate
to this type of system?
The proliferation of new news-groups and discussions of same seems
to take an inapropriately large amount of the system resources. I have
seen perhaps 10 news items discussing the name of a new group about APL,
but interestingly, I have not seen any news items with anything substantial
about APL. Why is a group being established if no-one has anything to
say about it?
Much of the garbage on USENET is due to people using (F)ollup
instead of (R)eply to make a comment about a news item they have seen.
(How many replies were there to explain how the two sattelites
that share the same orbit around Saturn avoid collisions? When
I saw that, I sent a letter, rather than posting a news item.
I must have been the only one.)
I think there must be a little exhibitionist in all of us. After all,
if my words are important enough to send to the person I am responding
too, then they must be important enough for the world to see.
Our management here, which signs the checks for the phone-bills,
occasionally comes down and asks "What good is the system doing for us?
Show us what it is saying."
So they read the news and see trivia questions about Superman
and Star Trek, and how to use Stravinsky's RITE OF SPRING
to retaliate against disco loving neighbors, and why
cooking with animal fat will kill you young.
Come on, people, none
has any relevance for us at all!
Does this stuff really belong on USENET? If this continues, we are going to
get our link to the system cancelled.
There is a very large informal network of "bulletin board system's"
(better than 300 nation wide). Here in Portland OR alone, we have 6 that
I know of. Many of these types of systems have nationwide followings,
and are oriented around specific topics. (For instance, there is one
in Colorado oriented to GAY topics - just an example of how eclectic
these systems get.) I suspect that such discussions
would be better moved to such systems. To find out the numbers of them, just
ask your local computer store. They will know the numbers of the local
systems. The Portland ABBS system [(503)-641-8555] has an online list
of several hundred, organized by type and coded by subject matter and
hours. (Type "F" to the main menu to find the list.)
The point of all this is that these bulletin board systems are run and maintained
by private individuals, so any subject is open game. On a system in
which corporations and universities are paying the bills, one would
think that a little bit of professionalism would be appropriate.
nf
Steve Den Beste
Tektronix Logic Analyzer Engineering
Portland, Oregon
(ucbvax!teklabs!tekmdp!dadlaB!dadlaA!steve)
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