tp@ndm20 (09/23/85)
> Well, I, for one, feel that telling another site what groups >it can and cannot recieve is completely out of line. If the other It is completely in-line (?) to decide what groups you want to send out, because you have to pay to send it, or at least tie up your resources (modem, cpu, etc). On the other hand, nobody can tell you what you can or can not recieve, because you can always get it from anybody else in the world who has it. You may have to pay for it, but if you only want it on the condition that somebody else foots the phone bill, I expect few around here will have sympathy for you, especially the backbone sites. >immediately after delivery! I would certainly hate to come some >morning and find my favorite groups cut off without a word! If they do, find someone who has it and connect directly to them to get that one group. We all take the backbone too much for granted. They don't have to send news around the world and pay the bills. I for one am grateful that they do. If they decide that they want to reduce their generosity and not pay $$$ to ship net.flame all over the net, that is their right, and rather than moaning about the loss, we should all thank them for continuing to provide the service that they still provide. If you still want the group, find someone else that has it. You can then redistribute it yourselves in your area. This net is not dependent on the backbones for existence. It is ihnp4's right to leave the net if they choose. The net won't die. If the entire backbone disappeared, after the chaos cleared the net would still exist. The phone bills would shift to other sites, the net would reconfigure itself, news feeds would adjust, and we would still be here. Those sites who are not interested unless it is a free ride might be gone, if there were no local sites to support them. (After talking to my management, I might find myself in that situation.) Those who thought the net was worth having would still have it. I for one am very thankful to the backbone and to convex (the site that pays most of the long-distance for me and others in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area). If any of those sites drops a group that I am interested in, I won't even grumble unless they do it without telling me far enough in advance to get another feed for it (which is certainly their right, but not very courteous). If I can't find a local site with it, I'll decide whether I want it bad enough to pay for it. If I do, I'll find someone willing to let me call them and get it. And because I really believe in this concept, I'll then re-distribute it to the rest of the DFW area, including convex, if they want it. To those of you generous enough to support this wonderful medium of information exchange, thank you. Your generosity is not totally unappreciated by those of us who benefit from it. Thanks, Terry Poot Nathan D. Maier Consulting Engineers (214)739-4741 Usenet: ...!{allegra|ihnp4}!convex!smu!ndm20!tp CSNET: ndm20!tp@smu ARPA: ndm20!tp%smu@csnet-relay.ARPA