henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (10/11/85)
Effective one week from today, i.e. Friday 18 Oct 1985, unless I am given
some really good arguments to the contrary, utzoo will cease to accept or
forward the following newsgroups and their subgroups:
net.philosophy
net.politics
net.religion
net.bizarre
net.flame
In addition, there is a significant probability that some or all of the
following will also get the axe shortly:
net.music
net.audio
net.abortion
net.auto
net.movies
net.women
net.sf-lovers
The reason for all this is simple: our phone bills are reaching the
danger point. The last monthly bill was over $1000. The cost-sharing
agreement with various local sites helps, but not enough. The general
trends in overall traffic, traffic per newsgroup, and phone bills are
upward. That first list of newsgroups, with their subgroups, constitutes
25% of recent traffic. The second list adds another 15-20%.
When I say "really good arguments", please note that I do not mean telling
me that you just love net.X and would be driven to the depths of despair
(or homicidal rage) if it vanished. What I mean is telling me why the group
in question is worth enough to you that WE should pay $200+/year for it.
Our expenditures on the network are justified in terms of the technical
information flow. None of the above groups can be defended in this way.
Note that I have picked only the indisputably non-technical groups with
heavy traffic. I regard things like net.sources.mac with a very jaundiced
eye, and their day may come, but right now I'm willing to consider them
legitimate.
I deeply regret having to do this, but I see no other solution.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henryhenry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (10/17/85)
The cuts originally promised for tomorrow will be postponed a few days,
tentatively to Wednesday 23 Oct 1985. I have been ill (still am, to
some extent) and haven't finished sorting through the commentary I've
received on them.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henryhenry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (10/24/85)
I have requested our Long-Distance news feeds to shut off transmission
of:
net.religion
net.flame
net.bizarre
net.philosophy
net.politics
and all subgroups thereof, as prophesied earlier. The folks at lsuc are
bringing net.politics and net.religion.jewish in from outside, and are
feeding them to us for local redistribution (although site "utcs" is not
redistributing them, so people whose feed from us went through utcs will
need to find a new path if they want those groups).
I am still cogitating on the second list of "possible later cuts". Stay
tuned for further news on this.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henrydave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) (10/24/85)
> I have requested our Long-Distance news feeds to shut off transmission > of: > net.religion > net.flame > net.bizarre > net.philosophy I should point out, for people not that familiar with the workings of the news system, that if you remain subscribed to the above groups you will still see occasional postings. Any article posted to multiple groups, where one of the groups is received by your feeding chain, will be received. So, for example, if something is cross-posted to (don't you dare!) net.general,net.flame, then you might see it in net.flame (unless you've read it first in net.general). Dave Sherman The Law Society of Upper Canada Toronto -- { ihnp4!utzoo pesnta utcs hcr decvax!utcsri } !lsuc!dave
clewis@mnetor.UUCP (Chris Lewis) (10/24/85)
In article <6073@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes: >I have requested our Long-Distance news feeds to shut off transmission >of: > net.religion > net.flame > net.bizarre > net.philosophy > net.politics > >and all subgroups thereof, as prophesied earlier. The folks at lsuc are >bringing net.politics and net.religion.jewish in from outside, and are >feeding them to us for local redistribution (although site "utcs" is not >redistributing them, so people whose feed from us went through utcs will >need to find a new path if they want those groups). > >I am still cogitating on the second list of "possible later cuts". Stay >tuned for further news on this. >-- > Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology > {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry FYI: lsuc is feeding net.politics and net.religion.jewish to mnetor. We are, in turn, feeding them downstream to genat and yetti (and their downstreams). utcs's other feeds (oscvax and bnr-vpa) are not receiving them though. -- Chris Lewis, UUCP: {allegra, linus, ihnp4}!utzoo!mnetor!clewis BELL: (416)-475-8980 ext. 321
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (10/25/85)
The slightly-revised list of further potential cuts in newsgroups is
as follows:
net.music except net.music.synth
net.audio
net.abortion
net.movies
net.women
net.sf-lovers
net.origins
The changes are the addition of net.origins, the stay of execution on
net.auto (which has dropped off seismo's top-25 chart), and the exception
for net.music.synth (which can be argued to have technical relevance to
the computer-music people). Together these groups approach 20% of the
network traffic. Unless coherent arguments are advanced as to why we
should continue paying for them, utzoo will cease transmitting these
groups Long Distance on Friday 1 Nov 1985. We are willing to continue
redistributing them locally, but this will depend on somebody else
bringing them up from the US.
I am starting to feel really hostile towards net.sources.mac, especially
since it's now #1 in volume, but there have been enough anguished screams
about the possibility of losing it that I'm not going to act on my feelings
about it... yet.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henrygeoff@utcs.uucp (Geoff Collyer) (10/25/85)
This message is empty.
geoff@utcs.uucp (Geoff Collyer) (10/25/85)
Effective Tuesday, October 29th, utcs will be making the cuts Henry has proposed (net.music except net.music.synth, net.audio, net.abortion, net.movies, net.women, net.sf-lovers, net.origins). News resource consumption is coming under intense scrutiny here; otherwise I would have just waited until utzoo cut them.