spaf@gatech.uucp (Gene Spafford) (10/18/85)
Net.bizarre is going to go away.
A few months ago, a few individuals decided they wanted a newsgroup
named "net.bizarre". The group was created by someone either unaware
of the proper procedure for a new group, or by someone who didn't care
-- or both. The group was "rmgrouped" a number of times and kept
being recreated. At that time, we didn't have a good mechanism for
dealing with such actions. Additionally, the point was made that the
group enjoyed considerable volume in its short "windows" of existence,
much of it inventive and clever. Many were swayed, nearly all gave in,
and the group was finally allowed to remain.
That was a mistake.
Net.bizarre generated tremendous volume as people dumped random
postings to the group, sometimes justified (to them) simply by
including the word "bizarre" somewhere in the body of the article. The
group seemed to spawn postings that never would have appeared on the
net had the group not existed, and it appears that in few of those
cases were the new postings particularly of value to the general
readership. Even worse, some instances of recent net-abuse have
occurred where the persons responsible have pointed at net.bizarre as
an argument in their favor.
There has been considerable discussion in net.news.group over the past
few months about deleting the group. I can recall no well-reasoned
argument in favor of keeping the group, and very few defenses of any
kind. Many sites have already shut the group off at their locations,
and the volume in the group has (luckily) decreased as more and more
people unsubscribe because of the high noise content.
A poll of the administrators of the Usenet backbone sites has resulted
in a consensus (19 for, 1 against, and 5 don't care) to remove the
group. The group will be aliased to "junk" at most of the backbone
sites, and I will remove it from the list of active groups. Many of us
will issue "rmgroups" on it. It will go away.
Now before you start flaming anyone, and me in particular, let me
answer a few of the obvious questions and flames:
1) Suppose I still want net.bizarre?
- Simple. Keep it on your machine. If you want to exchange bizarre
items with other sites, create a new "regional" distribution and
start a new "bizarre" group. If you are the system admin for your
site, establish new news links with other sites wishing to have that
newsgroup and establish your own "bizarre" backbone. The group will
no longer be recognized or passed through the backbone or many other
associated sites, so you will have to establish your own
distribution if you want such a group.
Note: DON'T consider starting up a mailing list that would end up
passing the equivalent of "net.bizarre" through the mail and (most
likely) through sites that don't want to carry the newsgroup. If
you want to create a mailing list, establish direct links and foot
the transport costs yourselves.
2) Just who are the "net-fascists" making this decision for us?
- [Note: I used the phrase "net-fascist" here because there are a
number of people on the net who like to flame using that misnomer.
Fascism is the political philosophy of a strong central government
which forces the few to do things for the good of the many, even if
it is bad for those few. The view that the backbone sites should
carry all newsgroups, regardless of content or cost, just so that
the whole net can receive them, might be considered a "fascist"
viewpoint. Thus, this decision can hardly be considered "fascist"
and any flames or comments containing that epithet will simply
reflect on the vocabulary of the poster. Further references to
fascism should go to net.politics.]
Those individuals making this decision happen to be the
administrators of the Usenet backbone. They represent a combined
experience with the net that can be counted in decades. Their
machines happen to keep the Usenet together, and their support for
the network can be calculated in the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of
dollars annually, in communications costs, machine and storage
costs, and personnel costs associated with support and use of the
net.
This is traditional Usenet anarchy at its best. Each of the
backbone administrators will make his or her own decision whether
to go along with this and they are carrying it out on their own
machine. They aren't going to force anyone else to remove
net.bizarre from their machine -- they simply are not going to
continue to carry it on theirs. Many of us at secondary sites will
do the same thing, for basically the same reasons.
If you feel strongly enough about the situation, take on the duties
and responsibilities of a backbone site and distribute the groups
you feel appropriate. After you've demonstrated a willingness to
support the Usenet with both money and time, you'll be in a better
position to comment on the situation. Beware, though: by then your
attitude might be a bit different.
3) Why pick on net.bizarre when there are all sorts of other groups
with more volume and more problems?
- They may be next. It is beginning to look like the continued
existence of the net may be in jeopardy unless some major and
drastic actions are at least contemplated. This may be one way
of doing that.
4) Where do I go to complain or make suggestions?
- The same place as always -- post to net.news. Or, you can send
mail to me, and I will summarize to the net. DON'T send mail to me
unless you are willing to have your comments quoted in mail to the
backbone admins or in net postings; private mail on this matter
should be explicitly marked as such. Abuse mailed to me will
be ignored; if I wanted abuse, I would have contacted my thesis
advisor :-).
----
Gene Spafford
The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet: Spaf @ GATech ARPA: Spaf%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
uucp: ...!{akgua,allegra,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!spaf