Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!uwvax!umnd-cs!umn-cs!meccts!ahby
From: ahby@meccts.MECC.MN.ORG (Shane P. McCarron)
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.misc,news.stargate,news.sysadmin,news.admin
Subject: Re: USENET constitution (Was Re: Spaf Pro-vote)
Message-ID: <3077@meccts.MECC.MN.ORG>
Date: Fri, 10-Jul-87 13:57:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: meccts.3077
Posted: Fri Jul 10 13:57:48 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 13:18:20 EDT
References: <772@hao.UCAR.EDU> <604@nonvon.UUCP> <3181@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Reply-To: ahby@meccts.UUCP (Shane P. McCarron)
Organization: MECC Technical Services, St. Paul, MN
Lines: 49
Xref: mnetor news.groups:1222 news.misc:745 news.stargate:248 news.sysadmin:298 news.admin:680

In article <604@nonvon.UUCP> mc68020@nonvon.UUCP (root) writes:
>Seriously, I see why the admins at certain sites could run into considerable
>difficulty carrying certain types, or names, of newsgroups, due to
>organizational biases.  By simply passing them through, without processing
>them to the local user base, this problem is alleviated, while still making
>the groups available to the downstream sites.

At this site, we have NO available spool space.  However, we do feed a
number of downstream sites.  There are whole classes of groups that we
don't "receive" here, but do forward.  The way we handle it is this:

	1.  Our "ME" line in the sys file does not include the groups
	    we don't want.
	
	2.  The systems who want those groups do have the groups in
	    their lines in the sys file.
	
	3.  We stop unbatching news at 7:00 AM for 2 hours.

	4.  At 8:00 AM we do our last set of sendbatches (actually,
	    multibatches).

	5.  At 8:30, I remove all the files in /usr/spool/news/junk.

This makes sure that all the downstream sites get all the articles
they wanted queued up before I remove them.  Of course, this presumes
that you are not using the "=" option of uux that news provides.

In article <3181@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> sns@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (Samuel N. Southard) writes:
>Except for the fact that while they are "passing through" the system they take up
>disk space.  What if a link goes down for a while?  The company who ownes the
>site that is just "passing it along" is using disk space in the days (weeks, months,
>years?) between times that it can successfully connect.  If the owners and/or
>operators have decided not to carry a group it is probably because either they
>don't have the disk space, or they simpy don't want that group on their machine.  In
>either case, having it sitting on the disk for who knows how long would be
>considered unacceptable (at least I would consider it so, if I cansidered it
>unacceptable to carry the group in the first place).  If they are passing it along,
>then they have to carry it for a while.

To solve this problem, we have a rule.  If a site does not pick up its
queued stuff by 6:00 PM (we don't queue new downstream news from 8:00
AM to 7:00 PM), it gets thrown away.  A site can make special
arrangements, but normally it is just removed.  I know it sounds a
little cold, but with 3 meg of spool space and 6 downstream sites to
feed, it needs to be harsh.
-- 
Shane P. McCarron		UUCP	ihnp4!meccts!ahby, ahby@MECC.MN.ORG
MECC Technical Services		ATT	(612) 481-3589