joel@gould9 (04/25/86)
In article <588@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>, michael@ucbiris.berkeley.edu (Tom Slone [(415)486-5954]) writes: > A rumor has been put out that certain so called "powers-that-be" in the > backbone-sites are deciding the fate of certain non-technical > newsgroups, either to eliminate them, or to give them a second class > status. > First, a minor reason, elimination of newsgroups will have the effect > of increasing discussion of extraneous matters within technical > newsgroups. I think relegating them to 'second class status' is a good idea. It saves costs without eliminating them. I assume that means transferring them only over "free" lines or between sites who really want them. But, I agree, eliminating them entirely will put noise on other reasonable groups. If anyone has noticed the Muslim vs. Judaism wars that can break out on any news group (net.jobs comes to mind) at any time, you know what I mean. We should provide a forum for people to discuss these things, or they will use the technical groups for it instead. (I know, the "powers-that-be" want moderation, but I doubt we'll get enough volunteer editors...) -- Joel West (619) 457-9681 CACI, Inc. Federal, 3344 N. Torrey Pines Ct., La Jolla, CA 92037 {cbosgd, ihnp4, sdcsvax, ucla-cs} !gould9!joel {seismo!s3sun, hplabs!hp-sdd, sun!pyramid} !gould9!joel joel%gould9.uucp@NOSC.ARPA