fors@ndmath.UUCP (Guy Fors) (09/18/89)
This is the third time I've posted a note asking about the currunt status of comp.sys.sun. Our site is just not getting any messages for this group. Has everyone lost interest in this group or has our site simply stopped getting news in this group. This group was very active until lately when messages came in spurts and now we get almost nothing. Any information would be appreciated.
bob@omni.com (Bob Weissman) (09/18/89)
In article <1555@ndmath.UUCP>, fors@ndmath.UUCP (Guy Fors) writes: > This is the third time I've posted a note asking about the currunt > status of comp.sys.sun. Our site is just not getting any messages > for this group. Has everyone lost interest in this group or has > our site simply stopped getting news in this group. This group > was very active until lately when messages came in spurts and > now we get almost nothing. Any information would be appreciated. We've noticed the same problem here. The moderation of this group, a difficult and thankless job at best, has apparently become too much for the moderator. I have no idea whether the "sun-spots" Internet mailing list has died as well, or just the USENET side, "comp.sys.sun". I don't want to throw any stones, but something needs to be done to restore the information flow. Alternatives include: 1. Unmoderate the group. 2. Find a new moderator. 3. Break the group into smaller groups by geography. 4. Break the group into smaller groups by subject. Alternative (1) has the advantage that everyone will get every message quickly. This may also be a disadvantage, given the amount of noise which will doubtless appear. Alternative (2) offers no guarantees that things will get any better. Alternative (3) may be a good solution for people with time-sensitive questions who can't wait for (or afford) Sun support folk. Alternative (4) may be the best solution, at least for the USENET side of things, as people can subscribe to just the subgroups of interest. These might include hardware, software, operating systems, window systems, programming questions, user interface, etc. Rather than attempting to shake everything up all at once, I'd like to see some discussion take place. My suggestion is that we unmoderate the newsgroup and take a wait-and-see attitude to see if further action is necessary. Comments? (Followups are directed to news.groups.) -- Bob Weissman <bob@omni.com> UUCP: ...!{apple,pyramid,sgi,tekbspa,uunet}!koosh!bob Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
ndonald@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Nick Donaldson) (09/19/89)
We got news from comp.sys.sun a couple of days ago. In fact, I think
we got quite a few postings.
--
Nick Donaldson
Bitnet - Ndonald@UOFMCC or
NetNorth Domain-style - Ndonald@ccm.umanitoba.ca or
On our Unix box - Ndonald@ccu.umanitoba.cagary@dgcad.SV.DG.COM (Gary Bridgewater) (09/19/89)
In article <1555@ndmath.UUCP> fors@ndmath.UUCP (Guy Fors) writes: >This is the third time I've posted a note asking about the currunt >status of comp.sys.sun. >... was very active until lately when messages came in spurts and >now we get almost nothing. Any information would be appreciated. I'm sure that moderating a group is a fair amount of work. I suspect the person who inherited this group makes as much time as possible. Still, this was a useful forum for exchanging handy information and to have it become a trickle is a waste. What do the net lawyers say about this? Should we call for another volunteer to take it over assuming the current admin (who has remained silent in this group) will accept that? Can we make it unmoderated (and suffer the decreased S/N)? I am not, btw, volunteering to moderate (can you say conflict of interest?). But we do have Suns here and they do need the usual herding, calving, branding &c. and the help is missed. -- Gary Bridgewater, Data General Corp., Sunnyvale Ca. gary@sv4.ceo.sv.dg.com or {amdahl,aeras,amdcad,mas1,matra3}!dgcad.SV.DG.COM!gary No good deed goes unpunished.
scott@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Scott Hazen Mueller) (09/19/89)
I hate to interject facts into this discussion, but... $ ls -lt /usr/spool/news/comp/sys/sun | head -5 total 124 -rw-rw-rw- 1 news news 5706 Sep 19 08:19 1560 -rw-rw-rw- 1 news news 2163 Sep 19 08:17 1559 -rw-rw-rw- 1 news news 1522 Sep 19 08:17 1558 -rw-rw-rw- 1 news news 1715 Sep 19 08:15 1557 $ date Tue Sep 19 08:42:04 PDT 1989 Looks more like a case of network partitioning to me... -- Scott Hazen Mueller| scott@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (ames|pyramid|vsi1)!zorch!scott 685 Balfour Drive | (408) 298-6213 |Mail to fusion-request@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG San Jose, CA 95111 |No room for quote.|for sci.physics.fusion digests via email
bob@omni.com (Bob Weissman) (09/20/89)
In article <887@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, scott@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Scott Hazen Mueller) writes: > I hate to interject facts into this discussion, but... > $ ls -lt /usr/spool/news/comp/sys/sun | head -5 > total 124 > -rw-rw-rw- 1 news news 5706 Sep 19 08:19 1560 > -rw-rw-rw- 1 news news 2163 Sep 19 08:17 1559 > -rw-rw-rw- 1 news news 1522 Sep 19 08:17 1558 > -rw-rw-rw- 1 news news 1715 Sep 19 08:15 1557 > $ date > Tue Sep 19 08:42:04 PDT 1989 > > Looks more like a case of network partitioning to me... I'm having a little trouble deciphering what "facts" Scott is trying to "interject" here. I don't know what he means by "network partitioning". I assume he's saying "articles are appearing in comp.sys.sun". Scott, I suggest you look at the "Date:" fields of the articles, rather than the dates they arrived on your system. The most recent article to arrive here at omni.com is: -rw-rw-r-- 1 news 3021 Sep 19 13:11 1365 i.e., it arrived less than half an hour ago. But its header reads: Path: koosh!sgi!decwrl!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!husc6!rice!sun-spots-request From: davy@riacs.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Weird disk problems - Xylogics 753/Fuji M2382 Keywords: Hardware Message-ID: <1247@brazos.Rice.edu> Date: 31 Aug 89 16:09:34 GMT ^^^^^^^^^--------------------------------look! Sender: root@rice.edu Organization: Sun-Spots Lines: 52 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 110, message 11 of 11 showing that it took nineteen (19) days to get here. Oh, by the way, the originator's site, riacs.edu, is in the same town as my site. It is the delay imposed by the moderator to which I object. Scott, you really should have typed % ls -t | head -5 | xargs grep ^Date: 1365:Date: 31 Aug 89 16:09:34 GMT 1364:Date: 31 Aug 89 05:21:00 GMT 1363:Date: 31 Aug 89 13:17:32 GMT 1362:Date: 31 Aug 89 18:19:11 GMT 1361:Date: 31 Aug 89 13:50:17 GMT % -- Bob Weissman <bob@omni.com> UUCP: ...!{apple,pyramid,sgi,tekbspa,uunet}!koosh!bob Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.