Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rpi!tale
From: tale@pawl.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: Why doesn't someone create and easy to use rn?
Message-ID: <1989Oct10.235247.13717@rpi.edu>
Date: 10 Oct 89 23:52:47 GMT
References: <1085@shiva.misemi> <2831@zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk>
	<885@unsvax.NEVADA.EDU>
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Lines: 40

In <885@unsvax.NEVADA.EDU> storkus@arrakis.nevada.edu (Mike Storke N7MSD):
Mike>   Well, if those news readers (Vn, nn) are so superior to rn,
Mike> then why is it that more administrators don't get them as a
Mike> replacement?  We're using rn here.  Do I go to the
Mike> administrators, and talk to them, or what do I do?

Sure, talk to them.  See what they have to say.  It might even help a
little in some cases if you got the package first and could address
what is gained by installing it.

Why don't more administrators get them?  Various reasons.  For one,
there is nothing really that is "so superior" about them; often times
the claim of such superiority is more subjective than objective.
Another reason could be that many news adminstrators don't pay much
attention to news.  They'll look at it if it is broken, but in general
they just leave it be.  The software they run falls behind in
patchlevels and new software isn't tried.  Sometimes it is a matter of
available diskspace, or just convenience.

As an example, I directly support three readers here -- rn, nn and
GNUS.  I'm quite inclined to simply toss nn because I don't personally
like it, but I know there are other readers who do like it, so it
stays.  If I have a little free time (HAH!) maybe I'll get something
else.  More likely, if someone comes to me and says, "Hey, I like
<reader>, would you please install it?"  I probably will.  That is
indeed the case with readnews, which someone has told me he uses for
non-interactive processing.  I just haven't gotten around to messing
with the readnews provided for C News, whose building is not
well-coordinated with the rest of the C News configuration.

Oh, one more thing.  Many sites don't even _have_ a news admin.  The
person who installed it doesn't work there anymore, for example, and
the system just sort of runs itself.  Mail to news or usenet@that.site
goes unanswered and administrative details like adding and removing
groups aren't addressed.  That sort of site is very likely to be
behind the times for news software, too.

Dave
-- 
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