Xref: utzoo news.groups:4757 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d:467
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!netsys!len
From: len@netsys.UUCP (Len Rose)
Newsgroups: news.groups,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: What to do about binaries
Summary: Free Net? Hardly.
Keywords: binaries binaries binaries
Message-ID: <8749@netsys.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jun 88 04:43:38 GMT
References: <6010@megaron.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: len@netsys.UUCP (Len Rose)
Followup-To: /dev/null
Organization: NetSys,Germantown Md.
Lines: 73

In article <6010@megaron.arizona.edu> gudeman@arizona.edu (David Gudeman) writes:
>In article  <1128@csccat.UUCP> loci@csccat.UUCP (Chuck Brunow) writes:
	What do we do about .binaries?

>Lots of people are happy to see these things on the net.  Who do you
>think you are to tell us what kind of information we are allowed to
>post and recieve?

 Lots of people don't pay the bills for the massive amount of traffic
 that all binaries generate.. 

>These poor helpless users must be sending their cries directly to you,
>because I haven't seen them.  Maybe we ought to investigate the
>possiblity that the moderator is being paid off by these fortune 500
>shareware companies.

 These poor helpless users you blithely refer to.. are _backbone_ admins
 who are getting tired of feeding megs and megs of binaries that only
 benefit a small percentage of the net.whole .. If I may suggest that you
 read news.admin once in awhile,you would see the discussion frequently.

>We're not going to ban shareware.  Post away, it's a free net, even
>though there are some like you who don't want it to be.

 Who is "we",might I ask.. 

 It is not a free net.. It is quite expensive for the backbone,and well
connected sub-backbone sites. It is expensive for the owner of the site
you post from. It may be free for you,since you might not be paying for
the equipment,long distance,etc,etc.. (notice I say might,since I don't
know you) 

When all is said and done,the suggestion that a new newsgroup heirarchy
called "bin" be created to handle binary traffic is probably the best way
out. This way,sites that want/need these things can get them.The sites
that have no use for them don't get swamped.Connectivity may get shot to
hell,but then again,it is doubtful since there will probably sites that
will be glad to provide bin.* feeds ..

>Well, you have to be reasonable, but I guess that's asking too much of
>some people.

That is what the net.whole is asking.. Be reasonable about binaries..
Have some consideration on the budgets of the backbone,so that the
people that pay the money will stay on the net.What do you think drove
AT&T to do what was done.. Megs and Megs of binaries being sent via 
uucp mail..
I have one question.. If "binaries" are so important for you,
can't you just get them from a local bbs somewhere? With the
advent of pc pursuit,surely this is not a problem.. Usenet is
*not* a bbs,and was never intended to be one.. I expect some
major changes will come about soon,and binaries will soon be
a memory.

When the "bin" distribution is created,and binaries (of all
kinds) removed,the amount of traffic (netwide) will probably drop by
30% (based on my observations at three sites I administrate).

Surely this is an intelligent thing to do.. The net will still
carry all the technical discussions that have become important
to micro users everywhere.

Is it possible that you haven't thought of what it takes to
distribute this stuff worldwide? 

When the "bin" heirarchy is created,my site will be glad to feed
IBM binaries to other sites.. (I use them too.)

PS .. personal attacks get you _nowhere_ ..

-- 
Len Rose - NetSys,Inc. 301-520-5677 
len@ames.arc.nasa.gov  or {ames,decuac,ihnp4}!netsys!len