clp@beartrk.UUCP (Charlie Pilzer) (12/09/88)
In article <9212@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US>, jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (The Beach Bum) writes: > > more sites willing to shoulder more > of the load, i.e., fewer leafs > per branch; will make it easier to get on the net > Access to the net is not the problem nor is increasing volume. Its everyone passing all the news through all the machines. I've offered to provide mail and news feeds in my area and didn't have any takers. Since then, I've cut down the feed to my system to those groups that I actually follow. This was partially at the request of my upstream site, who suggested that I not take a full feed so that he wouldn't have to spool all the batchs to my site and so that his modems wouldn't be so congested. The idea of only passing subsets of groups is not a bad thing. I also think that other sets of groups, such as alt, bionet, and unix-pc, are a good way to go. It might make administration of news on a machine more difficult, but it seems easier than maintaining a mailing list. The news software (and for that matter, mail software such as smail) are pretty well thought out, IMHO, and function better than some commercial software I have encountered. Its certainly well worth the cost :-). I subscribe to uunet. My reasons for doing so were 1) so that I would have a major mail connection, 2) access to archives, 3) save on phone costs, and 4) to help support a news hub. If the volume of the net increases sufficiently, then machines like uunet will proliferate. Some might charge for access, others might not. News groups will proliferate as will heirarchies of groups. This is a problem only if all systems feel that they must accept and pass on all groups. The overall topology of the net may change. > and more moderation will make it more worthwhile. I think that as time goes on and volume increases, it may be more difficult to find moderators. Unfortunately, moderators bear a burden beyond that of examining and posting all articles for a group. If readers on the net disagree with a moderator, for whatever reasons or justifications, its the moderator who gets flamed or insulted or worse. I like moderated groups, the signal to noise ratio is high. On the other hand, I can be my own moderater, thats why keyboards have an 'n' key :-). Charlie Pilzer uunet!beartrk!clp