Xref: utzoo alt.folklore.computers:10481 comp.misc:11808 news.admin:12912 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!rpp386!jfh From: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F Haugh II) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.misc,news.admin Subject: Re: The Jargon File -- an apologia Message-ID: <19119@rpp386.cactus.org> Date: 25 Mar 91 14:22:47 GMT References: <1Zr0DW#37lgky6bXgdD31jqNy1Gg95B=eric@snark.thyrsus.com> <19116@rpp386.cactus.org> <1ZtF0O#754Tp97th6rb6mgr9j5k5BVG=eric@snark.thyrsus.com> Reply-To: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F Haugh II) Organization: Lone Star Cafe and BBS Service Lines: 51 X-Clever-Slogan: Recycle or Die. In article <1ZtF0O#754Tp97th6rb6mgr9j5k5BVG=eric@snark.thyrsus.com> eric@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond) writes: >for a grand total of 2972 blocks (and that's before we start on the talk >groups!). If the net is willing to tolerate *this* cruft every day, a >Jargon File reposting every two weeks is bupkes. You are crossposting into the comp tree, which is one part of the USENET heirarchy that people =do= tend to carry, even when they don't carry all of alt, talk, or soc. As a counter example to your argument that waste justifies more waste, here is alt on this machine - % du /usr/spool/news/alt | sort -n | tail -10 14 /usr/spool/news/alt/activism 14 /usr/spool/news/alt/config 46 /usr/spool/news/alt/security 84 /usr/spool/news/alt/sys/sun 86 /usr/spool/news/alt/sys 94 /usr/spool/news/alt/sources/d 1132 /usr/spool/news/alt/sources 1914 /usr/spool/news/alt/folklore/computers 1916 /usr/spool/news/alt/folklore 3222 /usr/spool/news/alt % ls -lR /usr/spool/news/talk /usr/spool/news/talk not found % du /usr/spool/news/soc | sort -n | tail -10 4 /usr/spool/news/soc/culture/celtic 8 /usr/spool/news/soc/culture/german 14 /usr/spool/news/soc/culture 16 /usr/spool/news/soc Clearly every system on USENET does not agree with your assessment that soc, talk, and alt.sex.pictures are very valuable items to be carried by everyone. There are quite a few major corporations (AT&T to name just one) that don't carry large portions of alt (I believe AT&T doesn't carry =any= of alt). Many companies carry neither talk nor soc. There are more efficient ways of distributing the "Jargon" file which don't involve posting every entry every time. To contrast your behavior against source postings, it would be like posting the entire source to Elm or Perl every other week when posting context diffs would be more efficient. What do the maintainers of Elm and Perl do? They post diffs. What does Eric do? He re-posts the entire object. You choose to crosspost to comp.misc just so you can get the distribution. I am sending a note to my newsfeed requesting that I no longer receive comp.misc. I encourage others who are tired of seeing their systems abused to do the same. -- John F. Haugh II | Distribution to | UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh Ma Bell: (512) 832-8832 | GEnie PROHIBITED :-) | Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org "I've never written a device driver, but I have written a device driver manual" -- Robert Hartman, IDE Corp.