andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews) (06/17/86)
I just posted to net.sources a shar package for the Junker program,
described earlier on net.news.group. If you haven't heard of this
before, it's a program which "junks" certain specified newsgroups
by slicing out the middles of large articles until the total size
of articles is below a certain specified limit. Used judiciously it
has the effect of reducing total traffic across communication lines
for the newsgroups.
If you start using it, please send me a note at one of the
addresses below. I can understand if people don't want to jump into it
without some net-wide use of it on certain newsgroups; I would appreciate
it if a group of backbone or near-backbone people would start using it
on some newsgroups no one cares about, like net.flame or net.bizarre (if
they're still alive somewhere). I can even imagine people increasing
the connectivity of net.flame as a torture test for junker. Then junker
can spread to more sites and more newsgroups.
For exactly $0.00 (+ transmission costs of course!) you get in the
shar package:
- the full public-domain listing of junker
- a man entry
- a makefile
- information on installation (minimal, because it was designed with
ease of use in mind)
- information for net users on junker
If the use of junker becomes widespread, people will start seeing
parts of articles cut out. It's so hard to predict what the effect of
this will be; what I would want it to be, and what I'm fairly confident
it will be, is this. After the initial backlash against it, people on
the affected newsgroups (probably the "soapbox" newsgroups) will start
understanding that junker is better than newsgroup cuts. Junker cuts
out stuff regardless of whether it's signal or noise, and the newsgroup
readers will realize this. Each affected newsgroup will become a
self-policing community which will work to cut down the volume of noise,
in order that signal not be cut out.
At least that's the theory. Even if it doesn't happen, volume will
be reduced by junker. And since junker is designed to be painless to
install, modify, and get rid of, if it all doesn't work it'll be easy to
chuck it away.
Until the end of the summer, and probably until the end of 1986, I
will be supporting junker. Please send comments, suggestions, and
especially bug reports to me. Followups will go by default to
net.news.adm.
--Jamie Andrews.
...!{ihnp4!alberta | seismo}!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!andrews
or andrews@cs.ubc.cdn
"That was my Lo... and these are my lilies"