From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!mclure Newsgroups: net.news Title: Re: New proposal for handling net traffi - (nf) Article-I.D.: sri-unix.5296 Posted: Wed Mar 9 06:59:20 1983 Received: Fri Mar 11 08:29:39 1983 #R:watmath:-396000:sri-unix:8200002:000:1329 sri-unix!mclure Nov 30 22:38:00 1982 I don't like the proposed solution to the ever-increasing news overload and its effect on Usenet sites. The proposed solution increases the hair considerably without addressing the real problem. I think there is a *much* better alternative for easing the load caused by news transmission: >>> REWRITE UUCP!!! <<< Someone should do a complete re-write of that code, while at the same time considering what sort of organization will produce a more stream-lined and efficient transmission facility for news. It would avoid creating massive spool directories and deal more intelligently by batching news. It would ensure fewer calls to transmit large amounts of information by preventing too frequent time-outs as is now the case. I could go on... Our site, ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix, was recently subjected to incredibly high loads caused by the interaction of the various uucp software, two receiving sites, and news transmission. Fortunately we're out of that thicket for now, but only in a hackish sort of way. We trickle articles into inews and have terminated one of our neighbors. The other two possibilities (news batching and uucp sub-dirs) were considered and will probably be adopted at some point. Of all the Unix software I've seen, uucp seems to be by far the most poorly designed. Stuart