mark@cbosgd.UUCP (02/10/84)
This is sort of a marketing survey for the UUCP map project. We'd
like to know what you would like to see in the way of mailing
address software. If you could take a few minutes to answer these
questions and mail me the results, I'd appreciate it.
(1) Would you prefer to see
(a) Full ARPA style domains, e.g. mark@cbosgd.ATT.UUCP
(b) Domains with no subdomains allowed: mark@cbosgd.UUCP
(c) The old UUCP routes: decvax!ucbvax!cbosgd!mark
(d) UUCP syntax with implied routing: cbosgd!mark
(If you choose this, what about sending mail to people
off UUCP, e.g. postel@isif.ARPA; and what about people
who explicitly route mail with long ! addresses to test
links?)
(e) Something different (what?)
(2) If something based on domains appears in 6 months or so, costing
nothing and with public domain software, would you be likely to
install the software on your machine and join this domain tree?
(3) Would you prefer to have a structure maintained largely by volunteers
which is completely free and public domain, or would you rather pay
a small charge and have it run by salaried people? (It currently looks
like it will almost certainly be free, but I want to make sure this is
what the community wants. Of course this means the level of service
will be lower, and there will be no guarantees of anything.)
(4) Do you prefer a situation where there are rules (e.g. standard mail
formats and explicit rules about not flooding your neighbors with
high volumes of mail) or the current anarchy situation with no rules?
(5) Assuming this domain software is installed and it understands user@domain,
how would you like to see it handle mail using the hosta!hostb!user syntax?
(a) route it directly to hosta.
(b) route it to hostb if you have a link to them, else hosta
(c) find a route (possibly indirect) to hosta, even if a direct
link exists.
(d) return it to the sender as undeliverable.
(6) There will soon be tens of thousands of personal computers running UUCP.
They will have to connect to somebody. Would you prefer that they
(a) contact hosts such as yourself and connect directly
(b) not be allowed to connect in
(c) those who don't have a friend to connect to would connect
to some mail-for-money service.
(7) How serious of a problem do you expect "culture shock" from your users
switching from the hosta!hostb!user syntax to the user@host.domain
syntax to be?
(8) Once some large domain based community exists, what do you feel is the
extent of our responsibility to sites running the old ! software?
(a) Refuse to forward their mail
(b) Forward it but no promises about format being right
(c) Forward it and require that all replies on both sides
always work right. (This is very hard to do - if you feel
this way, are you willing to write the gateway code?)
We would like to reflect the preferences of the community in our software
and structure. In order to do this, we need to know what you prefer. No
flames please, just tell us what you prefer, and who you are speaking for
(e.g. just yourself, your machine, your company, etc.)
Thank you very much for your time.
Mark Horton
cbosgd!mark
mark@cbosgd.UUCP