Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!david
From: david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (David Robinson)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: "Bogus" group propagation
Message-ID: <1991Feb25.195406.7488@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 25 Feb 91 19:54:06 GMT
References: <1991Feb20.024549.8050@uai.com> <1991Feb20.063914.9994@zoo.toronto.edu> <%&}&J^&@rpi.edu>
Organization: Image Analysis Systems Group, JPL
Lines: 32

In article <%&}&J^&@rpi.edu> tale@rpi.edu (David C Lawrence) writes:
>This whole thing leads to propagation of groups (not just their articles)
>by insipient seepage in all hierarchies. [...]
> [...]  The problem is
>aggravated by sites which still automatically created a new group each time
>it gets one it never heard of before --- a practise the main Unix systems
>ditched very long ago.

Being at a site that is high on the propagation list and which talks to a
number of other top 40 propigation hosts I would tend to catagorize your
last statement as false.  A large number of "backbone" (and I use that
term very lightly) sites have the attitude that they accept and pass along
any newsgroup that has traffic.  There is also a group of people who
feel that the entire "voting" system is a joke, see discussions about
the inet distribution in nntp-managers.

I think most people do not consider bogus or otherwise "unofficial"
newgroup messages too much of a nuisance.  The biggest complaint I
have heard about them are from sites with either old news software,
old newsreaders or both which have hardwired limits such as 512 or 1024
groups.  The cost of a directory entry is not much for most people.

People who have to deal with real costs in transporting news are effected
by traffic they don't want,  but that is easily solved by using an
explicit sys file entry.  People who want to maintain a "pure" namespace
are just living in the pipe dream that they can impose any real structure
on USENET and that it will make any difference in the long run.
-- 
David Robinson	david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov 	{decwrl,usc,ames}!elroy!david
Disclaimer: No one listens to me anyway!
"Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller,
 you're part of the road." - Stewart Brand