mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) (03/14/86)
I would like to see rmgroup control messages taken right out of the netnews software. What I would suggest in their place is a program which deletes a newsgroup *locally*. Then if Spaf wants to zap net.internat (to pick an example which caused some furor a while back) because he feels it was created inappropriately, or net.bizarre because it's taking up too much of his time and money, he can cut it off totally for his machine, which is really the only one I can see he has any right to dictate its disposition on. Or the backbone can quit carrying net.flame, and it will probably continue around the edges because the net is so strongly connected. But the backbone won't have any problem with it. Poor backbone, I don't know what they'll do if they don't have any excuse to gripe about newsgroups eating up phone bills (:-). Note also that there is no problem with the clown news admins whose idea of a great practical joke is to rmgroup net.news. Comments? Flames? % ln -s /dev/null /usr/spool/mail/mouse -- der Mouse USA: {ihnp4,decvax,akgua,utzoo,etc}!utcsri!mcgill-vision!mouse philabs!micomvax!musocs!mcgill-vision!mouse Europe: mcvax!decvax!utcsri!mcgill-vision!mouse mcvax!seismo!cmcl2!philabs!micomvax!musocs!mcgill-vision!mouse ARPAnet: utcsri!mcgill-vision!mouse@uw-beaver.arpa [ Aphorism is currently under advisement. ]
radzy@calma.UUCP (Tim Radzykewycz) (03/18/86)
In article <377@mcgill-vision.UUCP> mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) writes: > I would like to see rmgroup control messages taken right out of the >netnews software. What I would suggest in their place is a program >which deletes a newsgroup *locally*. This is already the case, only better. Currently, it is possible to configure systems so that they do or don't execute rmgroup control messages automatically, at the option of the installer. Our site is configured so that we get automatic creation of groups, but groups have to be deleted manually. If I do an 'rmgroup', I don't send out rmgroup control messages to the net. The reason for having the rmgroup control messages available is so that some administrators (who are, or consider themselves to be, overworked) would like to keep netnews administration to a minimum. If you have a problem with the rmgroup messages, then reconfigure your software! Don't just gripe about it. -- Tim (radzy) Radzykewycz, The Incredible Radical Cabbage. ARPA: calma!radzy@ucbvax.berkeley.edu GEnet: cc5vxa::cc5mxd::calma::radzy UUCP: {ucbvax,sun,csd-gould}!calma!radzy VOICE: "Hey! Radzy!"
sob@drillsys.UUCP (Stan Barber) (03/18/86)
The way netnews is setup, the administrator can elect to do all the rmgroup's manually. All s/he has to do is define MANUALLY when s/he compiles the news. Your administrator may not want to bother with it and allows the rmgroup message to do the work automatically. I disagree that removing it is a good idea. I believe that this control message as well as all the others help keep the net running. Without some automation, the local site administators would have to spend too much time with news and not enough doing his/her "real" job. Of course, this may not concern you. You may just be a consumer of the netnews, a provider of opinion and not a volunteer to be sure that it operates smoothly at your site.