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)