moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (01/23/85)
I didn't want to get into this. I've been calmly reading this on the
sidelines, and haven't wanted to do anything but stay out and hope that it
would die down (not that there has ever been anything to flame about in the
first place). Let us all settle down.
Deep Breath. In. Out.
OK. I will attempt (repeat *ATTEMPT*) to summarize what I learned after
about 3 hours of reading through net.news and net.stargate. The three main
points are:
1) NO CHANGES ARE BEING MADE IN NET NEWS!
2) Since there is no big "change", nothing has been kept "secret". In
fact, even WITH no big change, nothing has been kept "secret". net.news and
net.stargate have been keeping people informed for the last several months.
3) This whole furor has started due to Frank Adrian sending out messages
that "fascists" were out to change the net, and his fairly abusive
conclusion. I had hoped that the latter would have tipped off most of you
that the person flaming might not have his perspectives straight, but
apparently not.
Hopefully, some of you know me from my writings, and while I may be
irreverent, I am generally not abusive, nor given to jumping to conclusions.
Below is a brief description of the situation; I hope it is a fairly
accurate overview (i.e. corrections are welcome; flames are not). It is
decidedly non-technical, as it is gleamed from only the net.news postings,
and to presume to even approach Lauren's knowledge of the subject would be
rare stupidity (for me, anyway).
Apparently, for the last few months, Lauren Weinstein has been arranging
satellite transmission of news articles through WTBS in Atlanta. This is an
experiment which allows anyone getting WTBS on cable (and, of course, with
the proper computer and receiving equipment), to read articles - definitely
an interesting project, and one with great merit to expanding network news
to a larger audience (my opinions here, obviously (just being scrupulously
careful :-) )). This is strictly a side project being funded by WTBS,
Lauren (especially his time!), and I imagine Lauren's company; it is NOT a
planned replacement for ANYTHING... in fact, Lauren mentioned it will
probably be temporary in its present form, due to the fact that while WTBS
is (generously) giving free transmission time, this will not last forever.
Lauren decided to broadcast current usenet articles over the satellite
(called STARGATE -- catchy, that), but decided that he would like to have
the news moderated before being sent out. He asked for volunteers for
sifting through different newsgroups for postings. Again (I hate to beat
this into the ground), this is LAUREN'S EXPERIMENT... it has nothing to do
with us; he's just sending some net articles over the airwaves.
Now, many of you who read Frank Adrian's letter are going, "So what's the
fuss?" Well, Lauren and others have been hypothesizing that, as the UUCP
network continues to get more crowded, the cost for netnews will spiral
upwards, and that some sites will decide to stop forwarding some newsgroups.
They also hypothesize that a satellite transmission method would be
comparatively cheaper, and that some of the backbone sites might start
forwarding only news they got through the satellite link. Lauren and others
also feel that moderated news is better than the current format, i.e. that
there is a lot of crap floating around.
That's it. These were opinions and hypothesis -- you're average technical
newsgroup fare. The theories put forward have always projected that the
move to satellite news would happen when *individual sites* decided that the
cost for the current phone UUCP method had become too great. NO ONE has put
forward, in any article I read, a plan to force sites to change; the idea is
ridiculous in the first place, as a sites choose how many or how few sites
they communicate with, and how they do it.
However, certain people who do not like the idea of moderated newsgroups
came up with the idea that there was a plan to replace the Usenet with the
moderated STARGATE -- I have no idea how. Among them (from all appearances)
was Frank Adrian, who posted the net to nearly every newsgroup in creation
(even net.wobegon, where he frightened many shy people) that there was a
conspiracy afoot. Most of you came in at this point.
-----------
Well, several closing points. If you still are curious, or feel suspicious
that I have not been impartial enough, please read the last few months of
net.news and net.stargate. It's about an hour-and-a-half job, but there is
no substitute for first-hand evidence. You may not agree with Lauren or
Chuq's or others views of moderated/unmoderated news, or with their
predictions of what will eventually happen; fine. Net.news is a good place
to discuss eventualities, theories and (especially!) other solutions, as
long as it is kept to a rational tone (99.9% do). If you still feel worried
about moderated news or such, you might send a note to your site
administrator, just to let her/him know how you feel (best keep it brief,
every site administrator I know is knee-deep in work). And for gosh sake,
don't bother Lauren; from what I can see, he's busy as all get-out.
Lastly, as Douglas Adam's famous creation might say, DON'T PANIC (in a nice,
reassuring Mac Font) -- no changes in the netnews (other than the constant
upkeep that Chuq, Mark, Rick, Spaf and others do) is being made; in the long
run, the state of the net will depend on individual net sites.
Sorry to bother you; I thought after the bogus net-wide "alert" many might
be wondering what was going on.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
UUCP:
{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \
{allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty
ARPA:
fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPAlauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (01/27/85)
Very brief. Moriarity's overview was slightly incorrect in serveral points, but gave an overall flavor of what has been happening and is appreciated. In particular, the issues of moderation and user authentication are not just my opinion, but relate to other issues as well, including complex issues of law, questions regarding what people would WANT to see (and pay for) in a satellite delivered service, resource allocation of the (non-infinite) satellite bandwidth, and numerous other factors. These are all in the midst of detailed discussions at this time. The project doesn't involve WTBS directly, but rather the satellite carrier that uplinks WTBS to the satellite. WTBS does not have any direct control over what is sent in their vertical interval; that is determined by the satellite carrier who essentially "owns" the satellite vertical interval of WTBS. Some of the satellite people came to Dallas for the Stargate demo (which was successful by the way) to discuss these matters. The project funding has come mainly from Usenix, with the satellite time being donated right now by the carrier. Bell Communications Research and Fortune Systems have both donated moral support and equipment to the experiment. Nobody has made any money on the experiment--everything has been done through volunteer labor. I strongly urge interested parties to read the archives of net.news and net.news.stargate for full details. Various details are evolving and changing even now, but those groups have openly been discussing these matters all along (net.news.stargate is fairly new--prior to its creation discussion was in net.news). You might also want to read my first paper on the subject in the Usenix Utah conference proceedings of six months ago, and my update (after I had named the project "Stargate") in the just released Dallas proceedings. The mass of netnews on the subject and the proceedings spell out everything in great detail. Thanks much. --Lauren--