Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cbosgd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!cbosgd!mark From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) Newsgroups: net.news.group Subject: Re: New Newsgroup Proposal Message-ID: <687@cbosgd.UUCP> Date: Thu, 10-Jan-85 12:52:42 EST Article-I.D.: cbosgd.687 Posted: Thu Jan 10 12:52:42 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 01:29:49 EST References: <1838@wateng.UUCP> Organization: Bell Labs, Columbus Lines: 30 This is in response to a proposal misposted to net.sources for a net.sources.repost for repostings of things that some people didn't get. I think this is a bad idea. If you don't get a particular article, it's probably because either (1) somebody upstream from you isn't letting that newsgroup through, or (2) somebody along your path had their /usr/spool/news filesystem fill up, preventing the whole thing from making it. In either case, reposting won't help, it probably will do the same thing again. There is clearly a need for a solution to this problem, however. I have two ideas. (1) We set up some machines as public repositories of "things worth saving", such as mod.sources and net.sources. We publish UUCP dialup info for them (probably a very restricted special uucp login) and anyone who wants can call them up and get what's there. We'd have to index it somehow, that is, either publish lists of what's available regularly, or else find a way to get a listing back to the requestor (who is probably not in the L.sys file on the repository.) What we really want here is something like the ARPANET FTP with anonymous logins (which not only work better than UUCP, and are faster, but put less load on the repository machine.) Too bad we can't all connect into an ARPA-like network. (2) We post such things regularly on a newsgroup which is not transmitted over phone lines, but only over StarGate. Presumably this implies screening, but I think we'd need this anyway to keep the "who has the source to rogue" messages off. Mark