Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!bu.edu!purdue!iuvax!maytag!looking!brad From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: Who pays the bill? Message-ID: <1990Aug04.171540.29439@looking.on.ca> Date: 4 Aug 90 17:15:40 GMT References: <1990Aug1.230858.3264@iwarp.intel.com> <29103@becker.UUCP> Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd. Lines: 57 In article <29103@becker.UUCP> bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) writes: >|The net is too big as it is, I would rather have a better, smaller net >|by cutting dead wood. I would guess that 99% of users can do something >|about it if they really want to. If commenting to the people who can >|update only brings a 'it's only usenet, who cares?' response, then these >|sites are pretty non-serious participants, and we can live without them. > > Brad, I mostly pass by your sayings, and every > once in a while actually agree, but you are really > off base this time. > > This is sheer elitist pap, and misinformed to boot, > sort of like "let them eat cake". There are a lot > of very small sites out there with fairly limited > news software, who are hacking away trying to get > full news functionality on small systems. > > I, among others, go to a lot of trouble to try to > support these folks because I feel that the net is > a new and powerful idea in personal communication, > a new medium as it were, so when someone wants to > get started to use it I try to help. This misunderstands what I wrote, because it deleted the context. The problem is that the net is not a NEW and powerful idea. I've been on it just shy of a decade myself. In the world of computer networking, a decade is almost forever. B news was first released in late 1981. Since then, what has really happened of substance to USENET? A few new readers. A lot of pretend politics about newsgroup creation. Faster propagation. But very little that has changed the way an ordinary user (not that I, as a "misinformed elitist" should care about them) works with the net. A newsgroup looks very much the same as it did in 1981, except there are more and different people on it. The last two attempts to add new features to the file format -- References and Supersedes -- still can't be used to their intended effectiveness. And they were added in ~1985. Why? In part because people feel that an attempt to add new features will fail because of the sits out there that won't upgrade. If the choice is between keeping the net as it was in 1981 and possibly losing or inconveniencing a few old sites, I am afraid I would pick advancement. Yes, there is strong pressure to remain backwards compatible. (Hey, Henry, you understand why the 486 is as it is, now?) But sometimes you have to give that up if you want to go places. This is very true for USENET. If that's elitist and uninformed, then so be it. -- Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473