From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxa!mhuxh!mhuxm!pyuxjj!pyuxcc!djj
Newsgroups: net.news
Title: Re: Future patterns in usenet usage
Article-I.D.: pyuxcc.426
Posted: Thu Jan 20 08:37:29 1983
Received: Sat Jan 22 06:58:29 1983

Steve Draper's recent article was very well-written.  I agree with much of
what he said.  However, I must take exception to one quote (from item 1, I
think):  "and an overnight batch program can update all .newsrc files to
remove all references to deleted newsgroups [ that's from memory, the original
already scrolled out of screen memory]."

For my money, this smacks of 1984 and the re-writing of history.  I prefer
to keep all groups that I read and used to read in my .newsrc; it indicates
the changes in my reading patterns, reminds me of past battles fought on
the net (i.e. net.women), and also reminds me about trying to start
inconsequential newsgroups (net.suicide, etc.).

Perhaps a better way might be to "mark" such affected newsgroups within
the users' .newsrc files so that they will have no effect when reading news.
This would notify the users of the deletion of said newsgroups and preserve
the desirable features I mentioned above.

Dave Johnson
BTL - Piscataway