Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC830713); site mcvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!mcvax!jim From: jim@mcvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: cost of sending netnews to aliens Message-ID: <5322@mcvax.UUCP> Date: Wed, 3-Aug-83 01:12:41 EDT Article-I.D.: mcvax.5322 Posted: Wed Aug 3 01:12:41 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 3-Aug-83 23:20:50 EDT References: <1869@floyd.UUCP> Organization: Math.Centre, Amsterdam Lines: 44 Well, as an alien, perhaps I should use my zap-gun on those HILFs who break the rules and then there would be no problem? But, lets look at the current situation. In all the recent debate, no one in Europe has complained about the supposedly imminent collapse of the net, or about the number of articles which are just so many bytes in the wind (at least I haven't seen any, perhaps Andy is moderating us already?). Why is that? Well, the net isn't collapsing over here, and is already run on a pay-as-you-read basis. I can't speak for the UK, and I am sure, as in all things, the UK would not like somewhere else in Europe to speak for her (the UK is only GEOGRAPHICALLY close to Europe), but the UK gets it's news free from vax135; I don't know how much they get. And we get a small number of groups through philabs, ones which people asked us to get, not a blanket coverage anymore. Hopefully we will soon be getting some more news groups from decvax, and to those sites which ask for them, we will re-distribute. Another major manufacturer has offered some free satellite time, which we are investigating. So where is our problem? I think only you have a problem. We are in the fortunate position of starting up late and having someone (Teus Hagen) who put things on a nice footing. There is a Dutch saying, there is no point in filling in the hole after the cow has drowned, and that is what Usenet Inc. would be. And, as pointed out, you would really run into problems when if you tried to expand it over more than one country, the sum of the bureaucracies of 12 countries is MUCH more than the individual parts. As to moderating, that is already being done here on a communal, per-group basis, witness the fate of net.general. But it means we have to keep trying to find cheaper ways to obtain the groups, so we can afford to make some mistakes and chuck them later. However, the real problem is that the (soon to be) 3 news feeds supply different groups, and there is no net.anything passed between the UK and Europe, so we would perhaps not get a fair and unbiased choice. And anyway, how could you possibly ask even a HILF like Andy Tannenbaum to waste his time doing that (Hmmmm, perhaps it would keep him quiet?)? I don't know how this panic started, perhaps it was just someone who wondered how a thing could be so large without any organisation. Maybe he should look at US foreign policy as an example. Jim McKie Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam ...{decvax|philabs}!mcvax!jim