From: utzoo!decvax!cca!hplabs!menlo70!hao!woods@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.news Title: Re: Selection of Articles Article-I.D.: hao.255 Posted: Mon Jun 21 16:25:07 1982 Received: Sun Jun 27 23:34:06 1982 Oh, well, here we go again! I apologize if I have missed some of this discussion, because hplabs, through whom most of our news comes, has been down for some time. In any case, the problem with allowing arbitrary creation of newsgroups is that many systems, including ours, have limits as to how long the options line in the .newsrc file can be. I have already unsubscribed to as many groups as I can, and cannot cut off any more. This means I have to endlessly page through many articles that I know I am not interested in. The more newsgroups that are created, the worse this situation becomes. Some people have suggested that I do my options line in reverse, i.e. stating the groups I do want instead of those I don't. Not a bad idea, except that the number of newsgroups is so large now that I can't do that either for the same reason, with the additional difficulty that I won't get any new groups that I may be interested in. My proposal, which I have stated before, is to have a tree-structured group system similar to a real UNIX file system, instead of the type we have now where many groups hang directly off the root when they would better fit off one of the branches where they could be subscribed or unsubscribed to en masse. (Case in point: the recent argument about net.sctv .) I wish to HELL someone (Mark?) would state a policy on new group creation, bearing these difficulties with the .newsrc file in mind. My own personal opinion is that NO group should be created until there has been some discussion on whether the topic really merits its own group, and then the group should be tacked on as far down the tree as possible. If such an official statement was in fact made in the last 2-3 weeks while we were cut off from the net news, I would appreciate someone mailing me a copy. I really hate rehashing this again and again. Doesn't anyone else have this difficulty with limited options lines? If so, where the *&%#@ are you during this discussion? GREG (ucbvax!menlo70!hao!woods)