Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!blacks!dank From: dank@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov (Dan Kegel) Newsgroups: comp.archives.admin Subject: Re: Million dollars a year for COMP.ARCHIVES? Message-ID: Date: 21 Jun 91 16:27:29 GMT References: <632@mitech.com> Sender: news@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Usenet) Organization: Image Analysis Systems Group, JPL Lines: 22 Nntp-Posting-Host: blacks.jpl.nasa.gov emv@msen.com (Ed Vielmetti) writes: >In article <632@mitech.com> gjc@mitech.com writes: > There are hundreds of people who announce materials available for anonymous FTP. > If there were an easy-to-use standard form for them to fill out on-line, I'm > sure sure it could be popularized quite quickly. >I think that such a form would be quite useful... >[but] Existing projects which rely on self-cataloging and self-description have >miserable hit rates... people were supposed to send in descriptions of their >stuff, and fill out a complicated database format. They didn't. Biology journals are having success requiring researchers to fill out a standard online form describing the genetic sequences to appear in their papers. We could do likewise; the moderators of sources newsgroups (or of big FTP archives) could all get together and agree that, before any submission would be considered, a standard form must be filled out. Every published package ought to have a unique identifier, too; you can't rely on the name of the package (how many 'xplot' or 'ascii2ps' packages are floating around out there?). Identifiers like comp.sources.x/v8n221 would be sufficient. - Dan Kegel