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From: tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: magic numbers
Message-ID: <500@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 21-Aug-85 15:47:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-k.500
Posted: Wed Aug 21 15:47:59 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 17:16:25 EDT
References: <745@vortex.UUCP>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
Lines: 16

I don't feel that we should start to interpret the numbers too literally,
because they are anything but exact.  A newsgroup that thirty people bother
to vote for may well be one that three hundred will use when it pops up in
the course of their news reading.  Or perhaps only fifty people are even
marginally interested in the subject.  There is really no way of knowing.

Some better way is needed (gee, what an original observation).  Perhaps ALL
newsgroups should be mailing lists that through high volume and large
membership become eligible for newsgroup status.  This would eliminate most
of the pointless "A lot of people wanted it!" and "You call that a lot?" and
"You guys are just idiots for wanting this thing!" debates that now
constitute the newsgroup genesis process.
-=-
Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
ARPA:	Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K	uucp:	seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim
CompuServe:	74176,1360	audio:	shout "Hey, Tim!"