Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:6069 news.admin:12720 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!fozzie!stanley From: stanley@phoenix.com (John Stanley) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.admin Subject: Re: UUPSI's new rules Message-ID: Date: 13 Mar 91 04:15:24 GMT References: <1991Mar11.143824.24170@searchtech.com> Organization: Mad Scientist Lines: 63 mra@searchtech.com (Michael Almond) writes: > PSI already mentioned that they are placing the leaf node restrictions only > on the $75/month UUPSI customers. They, PSI, offer a second grade of service > with a higher price, that allows unrestricted UUPSI access. The next level of service from PSI is $175/month, and allows dialup Internet (SLIP) access. This is more than twice the cost of the USENET News service. The $75/month service was promoted as giving unrestricted uupsi access. > Why should this bother anyone? It sounds to me like PSI found that $75 > couldn't cover the cost of non-leaf connections and needed to change their > service a little. When I signed up for PSI service, they (and I) went to the effort to obtain a domain name for this system. What purpose a domain name? It makes mail from third parties easier to send. Instead of knowing a UUCP routing, they tack on the domain name and Bingo! the mail shows up here. Now PSI is saying (to some) that you may neither send nor receive mail through PSI involving third parties. Now what use is a domain name? If PSI did not intend to allow third party mail to be sent or recieved through uupsi, why was getting a domain name one of the features of their service? Why do they MX, if all they will allow is mail from PSI? As far as news goes, I think it has already been pointed out that they will either see it when I feed it upstream, or they will see it when they feed it back downstream to me. When they feed it downstream to me, it will be larger (more elements in the Path:), and older, which makes their service look slower. There has also been a description of how to get around any automatic news chopping (which will not work at this site). > Boycott? Sounds a little extreme for a rate change. Boycott sounds about right for bait and switch. A user signs up for the USENET feed. When he decides to carry on the USENET tradition of providing feeds to others, he is told he needs to buy a different (SLIP) feed, for more money. I would suggest to PSI that they examine this decision to enforce leaf status again. They will be carrying the same news in either case. I cannot believe that the amount of mail generated by any reasonable node I feed will make any dent in their capacity. In fact, any node I feed that starts to make a dent in MY capacity will be advised to talk to UUNET (would have been PSI, until this came up). On the other hand, the amount of negative publicity they have gotten (in the very newsgroups they want to sell) cannot be beneficial to them. If PSI is really concerned about the load on their systems, perhaps they would be best served by staunching the flow of unrequested newsgroups. The junk newsgroup is the most active one, here. I have not yet received the letter from PSI, so all I am going on is what has been posted here. I am moderately unhappy with the news limitation, but can live with it. However, the first piece of mail from a third party that they drop on the floor will be announced worldwide. They had best not make the mistake of dropping mail I send to myself from an outside system, and it will be impossible to tell this mail from true third party mail.