brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (11/03/85)
Many years ago, I suggested that the best way to run the net was to pay people to run it. If something is going to be done well, you must pay for it. At the time the suggestion was largely rejected because most people on the net gain access ilicitly and couldn't pay for an official service. Has this changed? If Usenet, Inc. were as follows: - a central organization with full time staff for programming and management - fast reliable distribution of news - distribution of news for less than half (perhaps MUCH less) of current costs - maintained mail routing and reliable 1 day or less mail delivery, again at less cost. Administration of uucp domain - links to other networks set up by staff. - News distribution done under a "constitution" that assures that the corporation will not censor any news at the originator's end unless its legal advisors state that such censorship is required by local laws. All other selectivity would be done by readers only, who of course would have the right to control what they read and pay for - Software systems driven to be the best for the users by market pressure, which is the only true guarantee there is, anyway. - Lots more that I don't want to go into here, but the essence is as above. MAIL me your vote. Please vote even if you hate this idea. In your vote, please indicate if you are a system administrator and how many news users there are on your site. Here are the broad choices: A) I would sign up for such a service if it really did save me that much money. B) I would not sign up for such a service because I object to a privately owned or operated network on principle. (Feel free to give more reasons) C) I would like to sign up, but I could never get approval for a special USENET bill. Currently my usenet costs are absorbed in the big phone bill here so nobody in charge complains. D) I would sign up with some minor changes to the "constitution" E) I would not sign up because I don't think it is possible from a technical or business standpoint F) Other Please Note: This does not necessarily have anything to do with Stargate, Keyword News, moderators or other related issues. The idea is that such issues would be decided by the customers, through market pressure. All of these schemes might be part of such a system if the customers desire it. Mail your responses to {decvax,allegra,ihnp4,utzoo,clyde}!watmath!looking!brad today! -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473