jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa (12/25/85)
From: jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa Although I agree with your message 100%, you should realize that trying to stop a discussion on Usenet is a lost cause. There are a number of reasons why Usenet discussions go on literally forever: - random reception order of messages, encouraging confusion and duplication; - long delays in message propagation to the entire net - a week is typical, two or three is not unheard of; - relatively high probability of messages getting lost (I estimate around 20%) encouraging even more confusion; - large numbers of messages with no factual content - just speculation, guesswork, wishful thinking, "me too", etc.; - a continually high proportion of novice users - because the network is continually expanding; - large numbers of marginal people participating (remember that 90% of everything is shit - people included). I don't know if there is anything we can do about this problem. I've been trying to fix it for eight years with negative success. However, note that I still use the network... --- Jef