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Path: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!amdcad!phil
From: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: net.news.config,net.news.group
Subject: Re: impending newsgroup cuts
Message-ID: <5580@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Oct-85 22:58:40 EST
Article-I.D.: amdcad.5580
Posted: Wed Oct 30 22:58:40 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 31-Oct-85 10:16:07 EST
References: <6047@utzoo.UUCP> <6081@utzoo.UUCP> <5356@amdcad.UUCP> <269@yetti.UUCP>
Reply-To: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Organization: AMD, Sunnyvale, California
Lines: 52

In article <269@yetti.UUCP> peter@yetti.UUCP (Peter Roosen-Runge) writes:
>the net both in concept and in practice, but how does the  expression
>of personal dislikes achieve anything except increase net traffic volume?

If enough of us admins get together and decide we don't want to pay
for groups like net.flame, then we'll stop carrying them and by reducing
the volume of traffic, postpone the day when the net breaks down.
I think this is pretty positive.

>Why should I care what Ngai likes or dislikes?

Why should I care if you care? I see you're posting from a Toronto
site.  Then you ought to care what Henry Spencer thinks. I'm just
trying to influence his decision in a way he has already indicated he
is leaning.

>It seems to me that the "nature" of the net is going to depend on what its
>participants want to read and what they find valuable

And on what the people paying the phone bills want to pay for.

>going on here -- the 'original inhabitant' syndrome: we are supposed 
>to be locked into some personal conception of the net creators or Mr. Ngai
>as to what it's all about. 

It's not a matter of being an 'original inhabitant', it's a matter of paying
THIS MONTH's phone bill.

>Luckily that's not the way technology works (at
>least in a reasonably free society). 

You are free to do what you want but not on my or Henry Spencer's machine.

>By now a lot of people are 
>getting accounts on Unix machines or buying Unix boxes just to get access to
>the net.

What makes you think Henry will give you a feed that has net.flame?

>So the net  no longer exists just "to support unix users"; rather Unix 
>is a (currently indispensable) tool for the net.

As long as Unix sites pay the bills there will be limitations on the
non-Unix material. If you want to run your own network on a PC feel
free. But don't ask us to be your relay.
-- 
 The Miami Police Department's Vice Squad has an annual budget of $1.5M.
 Each episode of the TV show "Miami Vice" costs $1.6M.

 Phil Ngai +1 408 749-5720
 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil
 ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.com