brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (03/20/86)
> >TOP 40 NEWSGROUPS IN ORDER BY POPULARITY > V V V V > 7 9423 7.91 4.23 16.66 mod.sources > 8 9412 1.12 4.23 16.64 net.jobs > 9 8689 0.00 3.90 15.36 mod.newprod > 10 7641 2.16 3.43 13.51 net.unix > 11 7641 0.00 3.43 13.51 mod.os.unix > 12 7285 2.55 3.27 12.88 net.micro > 13 7264 3.13 3.26 12.84 net.unix-wizards While the survey isn't very scientific (Although I got a good chuckle out of the posting that complained about the "accuracy" of the figures!) it does seem fairly clear that readership in mod.newprod and net.jobs is very, very high. Higher than unix groups, perhaps? So why do people sometimes speak of a "net concensus" against the types of commercial postings that occur in these groups? I suspect it's just because a few people yell a lot when they see these postings. It looks as though much of the net wants to see them a great deal. mod.newprod was created, in theory, by some people who wanted to keep commercial new product announcements out of the regular groups. Turns out they are one of the higher demand things that can occur in these groups. Most people would like to see new product announcements in their field of interest. The idea of a special group for them is odd. That's probably why the volume in that group has been so low. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (03/21/86)
One reason for a separate group for such announcements is obvious. Individual sites must be able to make their own policy decisions regarding what groups they are willing to (or can) receive and forward. Corporate policy at some firms may make the transmitting of such announcements impossible (either now, or later if company management at some firm happens to find out what their programmers are doing with the network!) In such a case, management may say, "get those commercial announcements off of the computer, or turn off the damn network!" So having a single group to turn off if required could be very important for some sites. Note that much of Usenet still operates pretty much in the dark as far as company managers are concerned, apparently. Another point: the rules for posting to the group are fairly strict, and this (along with the other efforts of the moderator) keeps the announcements from getting hyped, repetitive, or very voluminous. People are probably willing to subscribe to the group since they know it is low volume without repeats or hype. Most people would probably become disgusted quite quickly with such a group that wasn't controlled in that manner, or if the technical groups were intermeshed with such materials. --Lauren--