mark@stargate.COM (Mark Horton) (01/10/89)
The net has received an offer from UUNET to provide a domain
registration service for UUCP at a considerably lower price than The
UUCP Project. They are able to accomplish this because domain
registration would be a marginal-cost activity for them - their
overhead (staffing, computers, phone lines) is already being funded on
an ongoing basis. Since domain registration was the only
revenue-producing activity of The UUCP Project, it had to finance all
of our expenses. In addition, UUNET is able to commit to a level of
consistency of service that our volunteer organization cannot
guarantee.
The reason for setting up the UUCP Zone originally was to make this
service available to organizations on the UUCP network who are not able
to join networks such as ARPANET. Since Rick Adams has offered to have
UUNET perform this service, there is no justification for us to continue
operations. If we were running as a commercial enterprise or a
government bureaucracy I suppose we could find reasons to continue, but
we began as a service to the community--and the best service we feel we
can do now is to avoid redundancy. Therefore, effective immediately,
we have discontinued all new UUCP Zone registrations and are referring
inquiries to UUNET. Users wishing domain registrations (for example,
when you install smail) should contact domain-request@uunet.uu.net or
uunet!domain-request. All mail to our uucp-query@stargate.com address
is being automatically forwarded to that address. All UUCP Zone
registrations "in the pipeline" have been completed.
The net will benefit from lower cost and continued service. Tim, Steve
and Mark will benefit from having more free time. Our loved ones will
benefit (we assume) by having us around more often. It appears to us
to be a win-win situation.
We will continue to provide support to all current members until their
registrations expire. At that time, we will leave them registered.
Once all the memberships have run out and all of our expenses have been
paid (fourth quarter 1989) we will donate the remaining funds to some
UNIX-related cause. The decision of where the donation will go will
be made with the advice and assistance of responsible parties within
USENIX and UUNET.
Mel Pleasant will continue the UUCP map in essentially the current
form. The regional coordinators will continue as before. Mel's
expenses representing the UUCP network will be paid by UUNET.
The UUCP Zone Team
Mark Horton
Steve Morenberg
Mel Pleasant
Tim Thompson