Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!hpda!fortune!amd70!packet!cfv
From: cfv@packet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: new and unused groups
Message-ID: <240@packet.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Jun-83 17:51:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: packet.240
Posted: Mon Jun 20 17:51:33 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Jun-83 06:20:07 EDT
Lines: 82

Having just received the latest list of active newsgroups, I  went  through
it  and  compared  it to reality on my system.  My system is relatively new
(on the net about a month) and has been running with automatic creation  of
new groups, so I think that what my system shows is close to what is really
happening on the network as far as traffic is concerned (assuming my system
gets most of the messages).

The following groups show up in my list that aren't on the official list:

	net.bicycle
	net.lisp
	net.trivia
	net.groups.control
	net.gdead

As of now, with the exception of net.bicycle which seems to be well on the
way to official status, I have zapped these. net.lisp and net.trivia have
counterparts elsewhere, and everything except net.gdead could have shown up
accidently by someone mis-remembering the topic name. net.gdead? who knows
where that came from....

What was more interesting was the comparison of the list of official topics
and which topics were being used. Here is a list of all topics on the official
list that have had no activity since my system came up:

	fa.arpa-bboard
	fa.bitgraph
	fa.digest-p
	fa.energy
	fa.info-terms
	fa.railroad
	fa.sf-lovers
	fa.telecom
	fa.teletext
	net.adm.site
	net.ai
	net.analog
	net.announce
	net.applic
	net.bugs
	net.bugs.2bsd
	net.chess
	net.college
	net.columbia
	net.decus
	net.games.emp
	net.games.pacman
	net.games.pbm
	net.lang.apl
	net.micro.432
	net.rec
	net.rec.birds
	net.rec.bridge
	net.rec.caves
	net.rec.scuba
	net.rec.ski
	net.research
	net.rumor
	net.sport
	net.sport.football
	net.sport.hockey
	net.std
	net.ucds
	net.usoft.s
	net.vvs
	net.wobegon

With the recent grumblings about the large number of topics on the net,
perhaps it is time to rethink the existence of some of the lesser used
topics, and see whether or not they can still be justified (for example,
do we really need net.columbia AND net.space?). We might also
want to re-classify some of them into more appropriate locations (could
net.startrek be moved to net.tv.startrek and net.chess be moved to
net.games.chess, for example?). As the number of people using the system
grows and the number of topics expand, there will be a growing need for
something like a sunset clause so that topics that have fallen out of use
(like net.wobegon[???]) or aren't really used very much can be recycled....
-- 
>From the dungeons of the Warlock:
					      Chuck Von Rospach
					      ucbvax!amd70!packet!cfv
					      (chuqui@mit-mc)  <- obsolete!