Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-k
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!pucc-k!rsk
From: rsk@pucc-k (Wombat)
Newsgroups: net.news.group,net.flame
Subject: net.bizarre is just the first...
Message-ID: <1319@pucc-k>
Date: Tue, 29-Oct-85 15:22:31 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-k.1319
Posted: Tue Oct 29 15:22:31 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Oct-85 07:31:54 EST
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 33
Xref: watmath net.news.group:4077 net.flame:12550

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Reply-To: rsk@pucc-k.UUCP (Wombat)
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Organization: Purdue University
Keywords: paying the piper

First off, I support the decision made by the backbone site admins and
implemented by Gene Spafford 100%.

And now...a mini-editorial:
It's about time all of us wake up to the reality that Usenet is not
some bulletin board running on a PC somewhere; it's a damn big network
that costs a lot of money and time to keep running.  It's not an anarchy;
maybe it never was.  It is controlled in large part by the backbone sites,
who pay for a lot of this, and by the volunteers (like Spaf, the Hortons, Chuq,
Rick Adams, Larry Wall) who spend their time working on software, documents,
and so on for it.  These people have bent over backwards to make Usenet more
organized, more cost-effective, and more acessible; if you object to what
they're doing, then maybe *you* should run a backbone site, and then *you*
can run your chunk of the net the way *you* like.

A now...a comment.
I've been bringing up news 2.10.3 on our machines; and I've been looking
at the news we receive rather closely, since in the interim I've been
forwarding it by hand.  net.bizarre is permanently dead at this site.
I think net.religion, net.politics, and net.philosophy are next, simply
because they are soapboxes (and big ones at that) with little or no redeeming
value.  I expect that the deletion of these four groups will cut our volume
by 25%, maybe more.
-- 
Rich Kulawiec	rsk@pur-ee.uucp rsk@purdue.uucp rsk@purdue-asc.arpa