[news.groups] tradeoffs: gateways vs. mailing lists

kak@stc-auts.UUCP (Kris Kugel) (02/05/88)

My basic objection with a unixpc mailing list is with efficency through
the net.  For example, the machines near the mail list's source
will have to collectively handle (N * articles) uucp transfers, where N
is number of people on the mailing list.  Compare this with the cost
of news articles distributed and stored on machines where they are unread.
Mail can be *much* more expensive in uucp transfers for a group
with wide readership.

The usefulness of reading the net goes down as the noise level goes up;
duplicate articles are a form of noise.  Rather than gatewaying to
comp.sys.att, I'd like to see the unix-pc groups gatewayed to
comp.sys.unix-pc and ...unix-pc.src instead, and then sites need
only carry the articles once.
I would like standard unix-pc group names to exist, but I would prefer
the names to match the current naming scheme on the network.

(sorry for notes users, but they should be running two-way gateways
 mapping external long group names to local unique 14-char names anyway.
 people who don't like long names can do the same)

	Kris A. Kugel
	Storage Tek:    ...{ uunet!nbires, hao, ihnp4 }!stcvax!stc-auts!kak

scott@zorch.UU.NET (Scott Hazen Mueller) (02/07/88)

In article <245@stc-auts.UUCP> kak@stc-auts.UUCP (Kris Kugel) writes:
>Rather than gatewaying to comp.sys.att, I'd like to see the unix-pc groups
>gatewayed to comp.sys.unix-pc and ...unix-pc.src instead, and then sites need
>only carry the articles once.

This is a reasonable proposal.  As the/a gateway site (currently running the
unix-pc/Mail gateway), I'm perfectly willing to support this.  It achieves
the objective of providing wider readership for Unix-PC material without
raising the volume of comp.sys.att and also makes a bidirectional gateway
possible.

May I suggest that we discuss and refine this proposal for one or two weeks
and then conduct a vote?

>	Kris A. Kugel
>	Storage Tek:    ...{ uunet!nbires, hao, ihnp4 }!stcvax!stc-auts!kak

         \scott
-- 
Scott Hazen Mueller   scott@zorch.UU.NET
(408) 245-9461        (pyramid|tolerant|uunet)!zorch!scott