reid@decwrl.DEC.COM (Brian Reid) (07/07/87)
Three short comments. 1) The "backbone" is a myth for 90% of the net. It's true that there are places that are dependent on backbone sites for their news, but nntp and PC Pursuit have made the whole concept of the backbone quite obsolete. The sites that the net truly depends on are, in general, not official backbone sites (yes, there are exceptions, like rutgers and seismo). I have a lot of measured data to back up this claim. Almost all long-distance news traffic is now moving over links that do not have usage-sensitive billing. 2) The net belongs to readers, not to posters. Nobody has a *right* to post. The purpose of moderators in newsgroups is like the purpose of editors in magazines and radio shows: to prevent mindless drivel from wasting time and money. If you don't like the way a magazine is run, you are free to start your own if you can find people with money to back you. If you don't like the way a newsgroup is run, you are free to start your own if you can find people with money to back you. 3) Even though there is no such thing as a "backbone", it is still important to have central administration. It is too difficult to reach consensus any other way. People have made careful scientific studies of online conferencing for many years, and the results are always the same. It is necessary to have some form of centralization and some form of control. (Ref. Hiltz, Turoff, et al.) Gene Spafford, you're doing a great job. Bob Webber, you're a fool.