xavier@ut-ngp.UUCP ( Xavier) (04/21/85)
Maybe a new vnews/readnews/rn and postnews should be created where the distribution is assumed to North America (na) for articles from sites in North America instead of the 'net.' The careless 'Return-key' by those who have a distribution feature and those who have no such feature are main causes of messages going astray. Let the user who wishes to send to the 'net' be made to enter net and have the news program ask him if he is sure of sending to net. Had a feature like this been in existence earlier, the Europeans may not have had to dump net.politics and net.misc.
guido@boring.UUCP (04/22/85)
[Xavier suggests a default distribution of 'na'.] Sorry, but I do not agree. This would mean that Europe would also receive almost no messages in 'technical' newsgroups such as net.lang.c, net.unix, net.micro.* and what have you. The existence of these groups is still the most important reason why Europe is attached to USENET, and I would hate to see them go. Not to stir up this discussion again, but in my view a newsgroup can only function well when the number of readers and contributers stays below a certain level. Above this level repeated questions of newcomers and flaming tend to make all other traffic impossible. To restrict the number of readers/ contributors, a group must either have a very specialized topic or be geographically restricted. For topics of wide interest, there can be worldwide 'magazine-like' groups which receive selected articles from local or specialized groups. Guido van Rossum, "Stamp Out BASIC" Committee, CWI, Amsterdam guido@mcvax.UUCP
bob@plus5.UUCP (Bob Simpson) (04/23/85)
In article <1639@ut-ngp.UUCP>, xavier@ut-ngp.UUCP (Xavier) writes: > ... Let the user who wishes to send to the 'net' be made to enter net > and have the news program ask him if he is sure of sending to net. Let's take it one step further and restrict it to region/state/city. Rather than mindlessly posting "car for sale" ads to North America by ignorance, those folks in New J...uh, Netland will have to read the documentation to figure out how to post to na or net. This could even be extended to followups. Wotta concep'! -- Bob Simpson UUCP ..!ihnp4!plus5!bob The opinions expressed here are only loosely based on the facts.
rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (04/23/85)
[] What documentation? -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg
avolio@decuac.UUCP (Frederick M. Avolio) (04/25/85)
Since default distributions (by use and definition) are going to be
used more than poster-specific distributions, it'd be nice to have
default distributions be table driven. (Another enhancement!!!) Used
kind of like the news/aliases file is. One would want net.unix,
net.unix-wizards, net.news, and the like to get world wide
distribution. But net.wanted, and some others should probably have a
more local default distribution (regional?). And even "na.forsale"
could become "net.forsale" but with a very local distribution as a
default.
Although there still doesn't seem to be a way of stopping people
from posting "for sale" ads in "net.wanted", it'd certainly limit the
"damage." How many times does someone in Sweden want to see that
there's a house for sale in Naperville, IL (I never noticed... is it
the same person who can't sell the same place or do they have a large
turnover? Just what is it about Naperville???:-)) or to have someone
post to net.wanted a request for a good used car. (Someone might have
a great deal in Oregon. You going to travel 3000 miles to get it?)
Well, it's just free advice. You get what you pay for maybe...
--
Fred Avolio {decvax,seismo}!decuac!avolio 301/731-4100 x4227dww@stl.UUCP (David Wright) (04/26/85)
In article <6393@boring.UUCP> guido@mcvax.UUCP (Guido van Rossum) writes: >[Xavier suggests a default distribution of 'na'.] > >Sorry, but I do not agree. This would mean that Europe would also receive >almost no messages in 'technical' newsgroups such as net.lang.c, net.unix, >net.micro.* and what have you. The existence of these groups is still the >most important reason why Europe is attached to USENET, and I would hate >to see them go. > Just to add a second "Yes" to the above. Of course if you guys in the US could filter out the used car ad's, MCI ad/flames, etc. first it would be nice ... but if you can't and that is the price of getting the USEFUL news then keep it all coming.