sr@u1100a.UUCP (Steven Radtke) (06/06/84)
> The net is beginning to be swamped with the volume of messages. Says who? Would you like to site some figures? > I notice several people are submitting multiple long messages > to the same group. So what, as long as they are not identical submissions or improperly posted! > Something should be done to cut down the number of submissions. If YOUR site is overload, your news administrator has options open to him/her, such as excluding various groups. > I have a suggestion: I wish each system administrator (SA) > would set up their machine(s) to truncate all messages > 24 lines, > one screen full. If they would do this, we would soon see short, > to the point, messages from all these people that are afflicted > with the verbage virus. If the SA's would also disallow more > than 1 msg/person/group/day, I think the volume of messages being > sent over the net would greatly decrease. Its time some action was > taken against those with keyboard diarrhea, before some key net site > pulls out altogether. Clearly, it is possible to have something important or interesting to say that exceeds 24 lines ( who says 24 lines is a standard anyway? ). Or one may exceed the proposed standard by including reference lines in a followup article ( my article would be less than 24 lines without the lines from the original article ). Anyway, the load on machines is a function of the number of articles and the number of characters, not the number of lines, since most people terminate a line with the newline char rather than letting lines wrap indiscriminantly. Also, it is possible to have comments on two or more different discussions in one newsgroup on the same day.
gds@mit-eddie.UUCP (Greg Skinner) (06/06/84)
uname@pyuxqq.UUCP (Admin): > The net is beginning to be swamped with the volume of messages. > I notice several people are submitting multiple long messages > to the same group. Something should be done to cut down the > number of submissions. I agree in part, because there have been a number of articles I've read lately which have exceeded 100 lines, but I don't think the following is the correct way to solve the problem. > I have a suggestion: I wish each system administrator (SA) > would set up their machine(s) to truncate all messages > 24 lines, > one screen full. If they would do this, we would soon see short, > to the point, messages from all these people that are afflicted > with the verbage virus. If the SA's would also disallow more > than 1 msg/person/group/day, I think the volume of messages being > sent over the net would greatly decrease. Its time some action was > taken against those with keyboard diarrhea, before some key net site > pulls out altogether. 1. It seems to me that such a policy could be construed by net users as a "silencing" policy (I don't recall the correct term but it involves freedom of speech). 2. Some people post articles that exceed 24 lines (like in net.sources). 3. Other people post messages of technical content (like in net.unix-wizards, net.mail, etc.) which exceed 24 lines. In general, it wouldn't be a good idea to limit message size, because of the number of messages which have a good reason for being larger than one screenful. Perhaps Emily Post for Usenet should be amended to include good net discipline in limiting the size of responses. Note: I'm not an SA (yet), but give me time. I'm sure when I am an SA I'll have to make similar decisions regarding cost of phone calls, disk space and the like, so I understand your concerns, but don't think those are the correct measures to take. -- Let fly the bits! Greg Skinner (White Gold Wielder) {decvax!genrad, eagle!mit-vax, whuxle, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds And he who wields white wild magic gold is a paradox ...
king@nsc.UUCP (06/07/84)
> From: uname@pyuxqq.UUCP (Admin) > Subject: How to save the net from overload > Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ > > The net is beginning to be swamped with the volume of messages. > ... multiple long messages ... Something should be done to cut > down the number of submissions. ... truncate all messages > 24 lines, > ... would also disallow more than 1 msg/person/group/day ... > before some key net site pulls out altogether. I can already hear the volume of keystrokes increasing as people rush to their keyboards to cry "censorship" and "...violation of my rights to post anything I want". However I think the last line says it all. If a key site pulls out your "rights" are not going to get you back on the net. The one thing that puzzles me is the fact that according to my old map, site pyuxqq is not a backbone site. If my informa- tion is out of date don't flame, send a new map. The other thing that is significant is the organization. Is there a rumor going around that some group may pull out? In any case it would be of interest to hear what the backbone sites are saying. They are the ones with the power.
sid@linus.UUCP (Sid Stuart) (06/12/84)
Well since someone asked what people at "backbone sites" think about the increasing net node, I thought I might mention that the system programmers a MITRE are getting increasing pressure from management to reduce our 1 to 2 thousand dollar a month phone bills. I used to be all in favor of our being a backbone, until I figured out the money could be better spent buying a Sun for my desk. I'm in it for the toys, sid at linus.
keves@sdccsu3.UUCP (06/12/84)
I have a better solution. Why not fix the software instead? If you
limit people you turn the entire reason for this net into trash.
Creativity and a forum for ideas. Can YOU tell all your ideas in
under 24 lines a day? I sure can't, but if I were not such a "good"
netter, I might make some suggestion as to the original submissioner's
lack of good ideas.
Brian Keves
UCSD Computer Center
This is by no means a statment by the UCSD Computer Center, but
rather a personal statement only.
--
"A is A" - Ayn Rand
Name: Brian Keves USnail: UCSD Computer Center
Usenet: ...!sdcsvax!sdccsu3!keves C-010
...!sdcsvax!sdcattb!za62 La Jolla, Ca. 92093
Gripe: "Some people just can't have fun in this world because
they are too busy bitching about people who do."rbg@cbosgd.UUCP (Richard Goldschmidt) (06/12/84)
One way to reduce net load would be to eliminate duplicate postings. A significant fraction of postings seem to get duplicated. I don't know why, or how to fix it, but it would nice for users as well as maintainers. cbosgd!rbg
phil@amd70.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (06/13/84)
I would like to add that the figures seen by Linus (from $1k to $2K
a month on phone bills) are in line with what we have been seeing.
(we feed 7 sites)
What are the other administrators seeing? Let's have a contest for
biggest phone bill of the month!
Some may say that I am causing trouble by bringing this up. These
people are probably not the ones paying the bills.
--
Phil Ngai (408) 982-6825 {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd70!phil