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From: spaf@gatech.CSNET (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Net.misc.coke?  Surely you jest!
Message-ID: <577@gatech.CSNET>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 11:38:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: gatech.577
Posted: Mon Jul 15 11:38:09 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 06:25:42 EDT
References: <324@phri.UUCP>
Reply-To: spaf@gatech.UUCP (Gene Spafford)
Distribution: net
Organization: The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech
Lines: 34
Summary: 

About once a year, something comes along which takes us all by surprise,
and which captures the collective imagination of netters.  Usually,
this event (whatever it may be) causes a flood of news postings, all
largely duplicates and all on the same general subject which is of
little interest to everyone else.  The flood usually subsides after
a few months.

In those rare cases where one of these events occurs, it is preferable
for a temporary newsgroup to be created ASAP to handle the flood.
There are a number of experienced netters out there who have seen
it all happen before, and in whom I have enough confidence that
it doesn't bother me if they create a TEMPORARY newsgroup to handle
the flood.  Mark Horton is one of those people, and he created
net.misc.coke just about the time I was thinking about doing it
myself.  He clearly labelled it as TEMPORARY, and that is a big
distinction from other groups on the net.

The last time something like this was done, it was for the Star Wars
sagas, and net.movies.sw was created.  (Which reminds me....it is
about time we rmgroup'd that -- see my next posting.)

If netters out there think we should can net.misc.coke and return all
the addicts to net.misc, send me mail.  If I get more than about
20 responses to delete it, I'll send out a rmgroup.  I doubt
I'll get that many objections, though.

When the volume in the group drops to about one message per week for
a month, I'll delete it then (or someone else can) as it will have
outlived its purpose.
-- 
Gene "3 months and holding" Spafford
The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:	Spaf @ GATech		ARPA:	Spaf%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
uucp:	...!{akgua,allegra,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!spaf