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From: tdn@spice.cs.cmu.edu (Thomas Newton)
Newsgroups: net.news.config,net.news.group,net.micro.mac,net.sources.mac
Subject: Re: impending newsgroup cuts
Message-ID: <472@spice.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 00:32:38 EST
Article-I.D.: spice.472
Posted: Mon Oct 28 00:32:38 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 28-Oct-85 23:38:44 EST
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
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Xref: think net.news.config:472 net.news.group:2454 net.micro.mac:3322 net.sources.mac:694



Phil Ngai writes:
>In article <6081@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>I am starting to feel really hostile towards net.sources.mac, especially
>>since it's now #1 in volume...
>
>I would second that. The shareware postings are of course irritating
>but even the non-commercial stuff bothers me. The way I see it,
>there's a small group of mac users who have discovered this "free" way
>of distributing software, namely USENET. It reminds me of the
>proposals to form net.peace on the basis that USENET was a good way
>for them to keep in touch. The common problem that I have with this is
>that both these interests have nothing to do with the nature of the
>network or its intended use, namely to support unix users. If the
>volume were low net.sources.mac would be much more acceptable than
>net.peace as there would be little question of liability. But the
>volume is very high, the utility is very low, and I would love to get
>rid of it.
>
>Anyone else agree?

No -- I don't agree.  Shareware postings by people who stand to gain from them
financially (the author(s) of the program or even its user(s) in the case of a
"you get $X from registrations of copies with your serial number"-type deal)
shouldn't be allowed.  But leave the rest of net.sources.mac alone!!!

If your criterion for eliminating a group is that it doesn't directly 'support
unix users' but that it has a high volume, you can start by getting rid of the
mega-flamage nets such as net.flame, net.politics, and net.religion.  None of
them has anywhere near the utility of net.sources.mac.  For that matter, you
can probably also get rid of various non-unix newsgroups such as net.micro.pc,
net.auto, net.cooks, and net.consumers while you're at it.  Since there won't
be any need for anything other than net.sources.* and net.unix.*, you'll have
no reason not to go ahead and delete net.news.group.

Now there's an idea!!  Delete net.news.group.  All the discussions could be
held in net.bizarre (which seems like a much more appropriate place  :-).

                                        -- Thomas Newton
                                           Thomas.Newton@spice.cs.cmu.edu