russ@wpg.UUCP (Russell Lawrence) (06/13/88)
In article <56228@sun.uucp>, chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: > > I think it is time for USENET to diet. > > USENET's focus started as, and it a good degree always has been, Unix and > computers (more or less in that order). That's what USENET is best at as > well. The other stuff, it's nice, as long as you can afford it, but > without the computer stuff, USENET wouldn't have ever gotten started. > > Here's my proposal of cuts. Guaranteed, I'll bet, to piss off everyone in > some way or another. But when radical surgery is necessary, these things > happen. For USENET to survive, we need to cut: > > o comp.binaries.all > o comp.sources.all, EXCEPT Unix sources. > o talk.all > o soc.all > o rec.all -- maybe keep rec.arts.sf-lovers. > o misc.all -- look at case by case. Chuq's proposal isn't going to piss off "everybody". Many of the people who cherish usenet as a forum for technical, unix-related discussions will cheer loudly. There will, however, be a lot of howling from ibm pc users and non-technical 'talk' and 'rec' fans, and the intimidating cries about "geeks", "technodweebs", "nerds", and so on, will prevent the backbone from considering any direct, unilateral course of action. However, one by one, more and more sites will abandon the groups Chuq mentions as volume continues to increase and budgets get strained. As this happens, you can bet that marathon arguments over the name conventions will become more and more prevalent. There will probably be some kind of discussion about how talk.weird could be preserved in the comp hierarchy as comp.thinking.creative and an adamant cast of weird characters will thereafter testify in concert that their "strange" postings foster a re-creative mode of thought that enhances software design capabilities by breaking down mental obstacles. There will also be discussion from net preachers who will assert that the cosmos is a continuum and that we would be risking eternal damnation to segment our efforts into simplistic categories like comp.whatever to the exclusion of talk, rec, etc. Some of these arguments may well be valid, but nevertheless, we'll need to remind ourselves of Chuq's warning that the usenet can't be all things to all people. Usenet is not the Universe. It is, however, a wonderful place to exchange ideas about unix. Perhaps the sites where net connections are in jeopardy could be persuaded to drop non-comp groups as an alternative to dropping out altogether. -- Russell Lawrence, WP Group, New Orleans (504) 456-0001 {uunet,killer}!wpg!russ