Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!hal!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!bungia!cimcor!mike
From: mike@cimcor.mn.org (Michael Grenier)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: v16i090:  Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory, Part01/49
Message-ID: <611@cimcor.mn.org>
Date: 9 Dec 88 20:06:39 GMT
References: <1527@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu>
Organization: Grenier & friends, Forest Lake, MN
Lines: 32

From article <1527@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu>, by root@cca.ucsf.edu (Computer Center):
>> In article <1280@vsi1.UUCP>, lmb@vsi1.UUCP (Larry Blair) writes:
>> > 
>> > HEY! 3MB of posting for extremely limited interest?
$ 
$ Hey!!!
$ 
$ Just because this information is not system programmer oriented
$ doesn't mean its interest is narrowlly limited.
$ 

Well, my guess that it will be actually used by only a few sites.
I think one could argue that the GAO dataset is not a source and perhaps
should not have been posted to the comp.sources.unix group. 

The real question is whether a large posting will be used by a large
number of sites.  I.e.  is the site to size ratio above some certain
threshold? 

Perhaps a ratio like (percent of all sites who will use posting/ megabytes)
should be greater than 2 or something. Say GAO will be used by
1 percent of the sites. It would be rejected because 1 percent/3meg
is less than 2. Of course, who really knows how many sites will use
GAO...so please don't flame me, its just a made up example!

Small postings comming out of comp.sources.misc would be justified
even if for only a few people if the size is small.

I don't want to discourage large postings as long as they are useful.

   -Mike Grenier
     mike@cimcor.mn.org