From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npois!cbosgd!mark Newsgroups: net.followup Title: Re: mush heads unite -- what good is net.test anyway? Article-I.D.: cbosgd.2422 Posted: Tue Jun 29 16:46:19 1982 Received: Wed Jun 30 03:53:03 1982 References: pyuxbb.151 Please do not install March Gosnell's fix. If there is even any HINT that "all.test" behaves any differently than some other newsgroup, people will start posting their test messages to some newsgroup that they are sure IS handled exactly the same way, like net.general. My experience has been that there is no way to keep people from posting test messages, and I'd much rather have them flagged by being in a separate newsgroup so that I, as a user, can turn them off. We have it good in USENET - on the ARPANET, where there are only mailing lists, there is no "test" mailing list (who would be on it? what would it test?) so people mail test messages to real mailing lists. I do agree that there have probably been entirely too many test messages posted lately. I don't know the specifics of any of them, since they all have cutsie bodies, but I would be willing to bet that most of them could have gone on either "test" or "to.xxxx" just as well as "net.test". I'm thinking of making some recording files to make people understand what certain newsgroups are for, such as net.general, net.test, net.jokes. These are probably the most abused newsgroups. A typical recording would read: net.jokes: This newsgroup is for the posting of jokes. If you want to complain that you don't like the joke you just read, please send mail to the author. If you want to discuss jokes in general or guidelines for using this newsgroup, please use net.jokes.d. If there is any possibility that your joke might offend someone, please use net.jokes.q. Anyone have any other newsgroups that they feel get abused a lot? I'm making a whole batch. Mark