Xref: utzoo news.admin:14878 news.groups:32591 comp.groupware:589 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!looking!brad From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.groups,comp.groupware Subject: Re: Reform Trial.* (was: Trial flawed) Message-ID: <1991Jun02.164956.83@looking.on.ca> Date: 2 Jun 91 16:49:56 GMT References: <1991May30.144345.15890@gorm.ruc.dk> <1991May31.022710.11297@looking.on.ca> <1991May31.192813.28009@gorm.ruc.dk> <1991Jun01.041929.8253@looking.on.ca> Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd. Lines: 41 In article emv@msen.com (Ed Vielmetti) writes: >How do you discover new groups? What if someone says "hm, i wonder >what is in alt.industrial, has anyone said anything interesting in >there in the last month?" You can't believe that a 45 character blurb >approved by someone who doesn't even read the group is going to help >you there. It's mighty handy to keep around a day or two of news in >even the most random and banal of newsgroups on the off chance that >something interesting will pop up. Mighty handy, but mighty expensive. The way I do it is that an empty spool for every group exists on my machine. Any reader can subscribe to such a group, and they will see nothing there (except perhaps crossposts) However, within a few hours, the last 80 articles (ie. old articles, unless there are 80 new in the few hours) appear in the group, and it keeps coming until the user unsubscribes again. You are limited to this on a uucp system. On an internet system, a better idea would be to have what was eventually planned for NNTP. If a user wants to look at a group you don't get, you talk to an NNTP server that does have the group somewhere out on the net. (This requires the concept of feed servers and "server" servers.) If the user likes what she sees, a feed is set up. (Assuming this is allowed by admins, of course) > >groups of 100 people don't tend to have newsgroups. remember the >lurker factor, it's a considerable number of folks who never post I am aware of this, however, the argument I was refuting was "if 100 people want to read it, it's more efficient as a newsgroup than mailing list." This argument is the old one at the heart of the voting scheme. >in addition, your licence agreement for dynafeed puts it out of the >reach of a number of systems which might otherwise consider it. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the licence then. Nobody pays for dynafeed. If a site is a professional uucp feeding site like uunet (of which there are perhaps only a few dozen) I ask them to do me a favour (not money) in return. I would not call this putting it out of reach of a number of systems, or unreasonable. -- Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473