[net.general] Proliferation of news groups

stevenm (12/05/82)

The Problem
-----------

I am very worried about the proliferation of extremely-special-interest
newsgroups on the network. Many/most special interest groups are
"flashes in the pan", where discussion is heavy to moderate for a few weeks
before interest dies off to nothing. We have recently been lamenting
about this proliferation, and discussing the need for 'spring cleaning'
of newsgroups. This is the sort of newsgroup that will need removing in
a few months.

The Symptoms
------------

I am annoyed that anyone who gets 10 or 20 replies to a "let's create
a new group" query feels that he or she is entitled to create a new
group, and broadcast special-interest information to a network of
several hundred sites. Take for example a recent article:

	I've received 22 replies. They break down into:
		18 - in agreement, ranging from mild curiosity
		     to enthusiasm
		3  - suggested using net.misc (2 of whom referred to
		     a previous discussion about a net.psi)
		1  - strongly against, stated that such a group has
		     "no basis for reasonable discussion"
	I imagine the number of yes votes is of the same order of magnitude as
	that received by other groups voted into existence so we should go ahead
	and create the group.


I feel that a response of 22 out of a network of 300 sites (and possibly
6000 readers) is insignificant, and that the creation of a new newsgroup
on the basis of this response is absurd. For a reader population of 22,
a mailing list is a much more reasonable approach that a network newsgroup.

Solutions
---------

There are several possible solutions to this problem. Unfortunately,
most of them require changes in netnews software.

1) Allow only selected sites (ucbvax,cbosg,decvax,etc) to create newsgroups.
Appoint network administrators at these sites who are resonsible for
creating groups when they are called for.

2) Change netnews software to allow a configuration option which does
respond to new group creation requests directly, but forwards them to
the local administrator for consideration. This would be coupled with
mods to the software to discard articles to groups which have not been
authorized.

3) Change to network 'policy' for new group creation to mandate that
some minimum number os ***sites*** must agree before a new group can
be created. I would suggest that this number be about 100. Alternately,
raise the limit on the number of readers to (say), 200.


Comments
--------

Comments may be addressed to me personally. I will digest them for
net.news. Please limit your responses to rational discussion of the
(possible) problem, and suggestions for other solutions. Flames will
be discarded.

S. McGeady
Tektronix, Inc.

{ucbvax,decvax,zehntel,cbosg}!teklabs!stevenm	UUCP
stevenm.tektronix				CSNET