Xref: utzoo alt.config:1290 alt.sources.d:257 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!shadooby!sharkey!math.lsa.umich.edu!emv From: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) Newsgroups: alt.config,alt.sources.d Subject: alt.ftp-sites: program announcements & archive site info Message-ID: Date: 19 Nov 89 22:43:33 GMT Sender: news@math.lsa.umich.edu Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor MI. Lines: 28 I'd like to get alt.opinion on this one. Every so often Jon Granrose posts a list of anonymous FTP sites, which is good. Every time I see a new place to snarf a program, I tuck it away in a folder for my own private information, which is bad. Bad because no one else can see my archives, bad because I don't read all of the possible groups that might have FTP archive announcements, and bad-bad-bad because there's supposed to be a comp.archives group for just this purpose but instead it's bogged down in a lot of meaningless site entry format claptrap. What I propose is a newsgroup (probably an alt group for starters) which re-posts news from other groups about where to find things. Not "I hear that you can get FoobieTerm from Sweden", but the real announcement by the author or maintainer as to where to get things, what newsgroup has discussion, etc etc. Articles would be processed to make sure that headers pointed followup and discussion to the right places, to tack on whatever other reasonable headers might be easy to do (like archive site name), but otherwise there would be minimal effort made to sanitize the information. I suspect it might be a pain to get a moderated alt.group going, but if that's within reach I'd like to try it. --Ed