Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!pyramid!octopus!pete
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: A counter-example for those who would eliminate X
Summary: My point was re: volume, not the binary/virus problem!
Message-ID: <265@octopus.UUCP>
Date: 30 Jun 88 14:31:02 GMT
References: <264@octopus.UUCP> <3302@s.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Organization: Octopus Enterprises, Cupertino CA
Lines: 65

In article <3302@s.cc.purdue.edu> rsk@s.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Rich Kulawiec) writes:
>In article <264@octopus.UUCP> pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann) writes:
>>I find it interesting that there has been much talk about the need for
>>ridding the net of the evil PC binaries. Yet, something much less useful
>>is happening right now, and I haven't seen a peep of complaint!
>>Consider: The source code for the Mahjongg tiles.
>
>Let me get one thing out of the way first, and then I'll address the point
>at hand:  I'm not entirely pleased with the size of the posting that this
>particular (Sun-specific, to the best of my knowlege) game required.  On
>the other hand, I am not so displeased that I felt it necessary to complain
>either to the moderator of the group or the author.  I find myself
>thinking that this is really the first "huge" posting of this type in
>this newsgroup, and I regard it as a single anomalous data point.
>If these sorts of postings became the norm in this newsgroup, I might
>change my opinion.

The thing you are 'getting out of the way' is actually the only thing that
deals with what I was trying to say. I'm sorry if my article led you to
think along a tangent. My fault!

I'll try to make my point again, briefly: people have been worried about
volume on the net. Various people over time have taken pot-shots at different
groups, suggesting that they should be banned, first because of too much
volume, then for other secondary reasons. Usually, they take pot-shots at
groups that they don't personally find useful. My point is: the huge
postings in comp.sources.games are not being complained about, even though
they are stupendously big, and are *very* limited in their generic usefulness.
My conclusion: let's stop taking pot-shots at other people's pet useful
newsgroups... we all have our own! 

By the way, the tiles are NOT the first huge posting of this type. We're
also seeing a flurry of big X-windows-only stuff. The first N of 18 parts
for the latest thing just came through today. I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT
THIS. Maybe I should be, but for now, it seems to me that as long as the
flow is controlled, the net can handle just about anything. And when the
controlled flow gets too large, we need to regionalize the net better.
But that is not the argument I'm trying to make here. I'd just like to
have everyone look at newsgroups from the point of view of the newsgroups'
users, when wondering how useful the groups are.

>>But, if we're going to take the easy way out and simply ban X, we've got to
>>be consistent and ban ALL 'X', even the brand that affects us personally.
>
>I don't think this applies in this case; I don't feel that "a big posting
>containing a game for a certain Unix machine" and "a big posting containing
>a binary executable for a certain microcomputer" belong to the same X.

They certainly do belong to the same X if the situation we are dealing
with is: "there is too much volume on the net, so let's ban the X groups."

>...it does not necessarily follow that any attempts to decrease
>the problem posed by X must deal with all X.

If the problem is 'volume', we need to deal with all X fairly. Otherwise,
there will be great screaming and gnashing of teeth, and for good cause.

[rest of article deals with malicious postings and binary vs. source
	issues. I'm following that up with a new subject line]

Pete
-- 
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