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