Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!purdue!ames!uhccux!munnari.oz.au!otc!metro!basser!nuts!cc!sysnet
From: SYSNET@cc.nu.oz (David Morrison)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Review of NN, a Usenet news reader
Message-ID: <8841@cc.nu.oz>
Date: 11 Aug 89 20:30:43 GMT
References: <1836@papaya.bbn.com> <1150@sequent.cs.qmc.ac.uk> <1050@unocss.UUCP> <402@laas.laas.fr> <2794@mace.cc.purdue.edu> <339@capmkt.COM>
Organization: University of Newcastle
Lines: 17

In article <339@capmkt.COM>, brent@capmkt.COM (Brent Chapman) writes:
> It's important because "rn" isn't the only thing that expects a .newsrc file.
> The example that springs immediately to mind (and I'm sure there are others)
> is the "arbitron" program that gathers the data used to calculate the various
> USENET readership and propogation statistics.  Arbitron works by reading the
> .newsrc file of all the users on the system.  If they're using nn, they don't
> have a .newsrc (or they have one that hasn't been touched in a while, if they
> used to use rn), and thus don't get counted in the survey.

arbitron has other problems than NN not having .newsrc, given that news 
reading programs are available on non-unix machines which do not have .newsrc 
files either.  It is probably misrepresenting the actual readership of some 
groups.
-- 
David Morrison, Network Manager, Uni of Newcastle, Australia
Try sysnet@cc.nu.oz.au or sysnet@cc.nu.oz  (mail only)
or (VAX PSI) psi%newcastle.edu.au::sysnet or psi%0505249626002::sysnet