gf@dasys1.UUCP (G Fitch) (05/25/88)
I seem to have been too succinct in my previous posting.
It's never a good idea to assume the obvious is obvious.
OK, here we go one more time:
I have read in the News, and gotten lots and lots of email
to the following effect(s):
1. It's really neat to be the sysop of a leaf node, and
shut off talk.*, rec.*, and soc.*. Especially, especially
talk.bizarre! But it's good to have them around, too,
so you can disparage them.
2. No one has any rights on Usenet (over and over again).
3. Usenet isn't free, it costs lots and lots of money (over
and over and over. It's the favorite.)
4. The people who run the backbone are Promethean heroes,
who bring down electronic fire from heaven and are
thereafter mocked by Those Who Have Done Nothing for
Usenet, while their livers are torn out by beancounters.
5. Not every single poster or correspondent said exactly
all of the above.
Can I stipulate all of this, so that you don't have to say
it yet again, using up that precious bandwidth? Now here
are the questions, drawn out a bit: What do you think
Usenet is for? Who is it for? Most of you have made it
clear that material not referring to computers is in Usenet
on sufferance, and that you will soon "have to" get rid of
it as volume increases. What will remain, and why?
--
G Fitch {uunet}!mstan\
The Big Electric Cat {ihnp4,harvard,philabs}!cmcl2!cucard!dasys1!gf
New York City, NY, USA (212) 879-9031 {sun}!hoptoad/