blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson) (09/21/87)
Soon after the inet distribution newsgroups were created, Eric Fair
posted a message stating that they were for the distribution of all
mailing lists listed in Rich Zelich's list of lists that were not
being gated into usenet. I have sent him two messages inquiring why
the info-prime mailing list was not included, and recieved no answer.
Is my iterpretation of the inet newsgroup creation rules wrong, or was
info-prime somehow overlooked? (Hopfully it isn't discrimination by
computer brand, there are at least a couple of primes on usenet.) If
it was by number of subscribers or technical content, I think
info-prime would qualify long before the esperanto group.
I am more interested in getting the inet newsroup creation policy
out in the open rather than getting info-prime distributed via usenet.
If it is a matter of Eric Fair's personal opinion or that of the inet
backbone cabel, I am willing to accept that. (My usenet account is a
guest one, and I have no right to complain.)
Info-prime is a mailing list for discussing Prime (brand) computers.
Request for subscription should be sent to
info-prime-request%fns1@ecla.usc.edu or one of my addresses below.
--
Bob Larson Arpa: Blarson@Ecla.Usc.Edu
Uucp: {sdcrdcf,cit-vax}!oberon!skat!blarson blarson@skat.usc.edu
Prime mailing list (requests): info-prime-request%fns1@ecla.usc.edufair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Erik E. Fair) (09/21/87)
Bob, the policy for the "inet" groups is that whatever is in the List of Lists as maintained by Rich Zellich becomes an "inet" distribution group (plus whatever mailing list announcements I find while reading the net myself), whenever I get around to looking at it. Rich posted a 50% update about 6 weeks ago, pleaded incredible overload at work, said that there were many more updates in the queue (He does LoL in his "spare" time) and that he'd get back to it when he had more time. I haven't heard anything since. I also plead extreme disruption of my life for the last month and a half (I just moved for the first time in six years; still unpacking) and I'm finally beginning to clean out the backlog of stuff that's in my "ToDo" file. I'm sure your two letters are safely ensconsed in my mailbox, along with the 325 other letters in there that require a magnum opus in response (I'd write back "RTFM" to half of them, but in most cases there aren't any "FMs" for what they ask), or some action on my part. I just recently managed (after people have been pestering me for the last two months) to repost the newgroups and a checkgroups control message (which, much to my chagrin, disrupted systems all over Europe and confused a lot of system admins. Piet Beertema was not very happy with me), and get together a list of the addresses of the moderators for the moderated "inet" groups. I still need to make a pass over the existing groups and re-poke the mailing list admins who still have not added the gateway to their lists; make a pass over the "new" issue of the List Of Lists for more lists to gateway (plus whatever I've come across in reading the lists that I read), and finish the nntpxmit program for the NNTP 1.4 release (yes, for those of you waiting on that, it's my fault that it's not out yet). Oh, and then there are the updates to the Northern California UUCP map... Of course, if you want me to do something for you, it also helps if spell my name right. Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu
kraut@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (09/21/87)
In article <20890@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Erik E. Fair) writes: > Bob, the policy for the "inet" groups is that whatever is in the > List of Lists as maintained by Rich Zellich becomes an "inet" ..... > it. Rich posted a 50% update about 6 weeks ago, pleaded incredible > overload at work, said that there were many more updates in the > queue (He does LoL in his "spare" time) and that he'd get back to > it when he had more time. I haven't heard anything since. ..... > I also plead extreme disruption of my life for the last month and > a half (I just moved for the first time in six years; still unpacking) Everyone knows these disruptions, but I am amazed that I have never seen anyone ask for help in this situation. Maybe help is being asked for - and provided - through private Email, but I cannot but wonder why certain groups go into hibernation for months at a time without the moderator/administrator even posting an explanation or request for assistance. This is actually my strongest reservation against moderated and digested groups, as I have seen some groups go dead for months at a time (INFO-MAC comes to mind) while many willing volunteers could not even raise the moderator to take over the task (i.e. distribution addresses). Maybe some of you hardworking net-friends who are carrying the main load can think of a way how others can come to your assistance when you have need? Maybe training others to do partial tasks should not even wait until there is need for it but should be an ongoing matter? I know that it means additional overhead, but I do consider it very important that people on whom the net depends have trained back-ups, so why not try to have several people cooperate on those tasks *ALWAYS* and maybe we can avoid those "dry periods"?! Cheers, ---Werner PS: this may be a good place to insert a *THANKS* to all you volunteers out there. -- kraut@ngp.utexas.edu
allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) (09/28/87)
As quoted from <6324@ut-ngp.UUCP> by kraut@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig): +--------------- | In article <20890@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Erik E. Fair) writes: | > it. Rich posted a 50% update about 6 weeks ago, pleaded incredible | > overload at work, said that there were many more updates in the | > queue (He does LoL in his "spare" time) and that he'd get back to | > it when he had more time. I haven't heard anything since. | ..... | > I also plead extreme disruption of my life for the last month and | > a half (I just moved for the first time in six years; still unpacking) | | Everyone knows these disruptions, but I am amazed that I have never | seen anyone ask for help in this situation. Maybe help is being | asked for - and provided - through private Email, but I cannot | but wonder why certain groups go into hibernation for months at | a time without the moderator/administrator even posting an | explanation or request for assistance. This is actually my strongest | reservation against moderated and digested groups, as I have seen +--------------- The problem is that sometimes there's no way to *get* in touch with the moderator. Examples: comp.sources.unix went dead earlier this year when Rich Salz abruptly left his job at Mirror Systems, and therefore did not have any net access until Rick Adams provided him with an account on UUNET; and I'm still flushing my buffers from when ncoast's news system blew up (scattering shrapnel all over the active file) earlier this (last?) week, so news access to me was questionable and mail was often backed up behind rejected news. I, at least, have tried to make arrangements so I can still communicate: the news admin at hal.UUCP is understanding about system problems, as hal's neighbor site mandrill sometimes suffers fits as well. But often there's no solution at all, since commercial sites don't always -- or maybe not even often -- have understanding sysadmins. I admit that this is a problem. But there is always _some_ indispensable person in the chain: Gene Spafford, Rick Adams, and Mark Horton for the Usenet at large, Rick Adams (again) for UUNET, the moderators for moderated newsgroups, the news admins at every site (cf. "Mark Ethan Smith"'s recent diatribes), the mail admins at every site, the _system_ admins at every site, Brian Reid and John Gilmore for the altnet, et cetera. Until the day comes when every system can administer itself perfectly and perfectly inter- act with every other system it ever exchanges data of any kind with, this will remain true. (Anarchy just guarantees maximum disruption when some key piece drops out of the system. Imagine the result if Rick Adams had pulled seismo from the Usenet without making arrangements for uunet to take over all its feeds but instead had let anarchy do its own thing, if you don't believe me.) -- Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc {{harvard,mit-eddie}!necntc,well!hoptoad,sun!mandrill!hal}!ncoast!allbery ARPA: necntc!ncoast!allbery@harvard.harvard.edu Fido: 157/502 MCI: BALLBERY <<ncoast Public Access UNIX: +1 216 781 6201 24hrs. 300/1200/2400 baud>> "Mummy, what's an opinion?"