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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!preece
From: preece@ccvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Vote Fraud and Newsgroups
Message-ID: <3500005@ccvaxa>
Date: Tue, 3-Sep-85 10:59:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ccvaxa.3500005
Posted: Tue Sep  3 10:59:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Sep-85 03:30:29 EDT
References: <828@burl.UUCP>
Lines: 27
Nf-ID: #R:burl.UUCP:-82800:ccvaxa:3500005:000:1316
Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!preece    Sep  3 09:59:00 1985


> Let's say you had some oddball topic that 20 people wanted to discuss.
> They are prolific--they post lots of messages.  The group will LOOK
> "useful"--it will certainly have plenty in it... but does it serve the
> net at large?  Couldn't a mailing list have done a better job?  /*
> Written  3:50 am  Aug 30, 1985 by lauren@vortex.UUCP in
> ccvaxa:net.news.group */
----------
In what sense does a mailing list do a better job?  (1) It is less
visible to new readers, since it isn't just there to be browsed on
every site. (2) The traffic still has to be passed along the route
to each reader, as mail.  In some cases that will mean MORE net traffic
than if the notes had been passed as news.  All you save is storage at
intervening sites, which could as well be restricted by a short
expiration time, and traffic on links not leading to readers of the
mailing list.  I wonder how significant that is.

This is not to say that I don't approve of mailing lists.  I think
they're a good idea and may represent the wave of the future, since
they involve an editing step where value is added by the removal of
chaff and the collation of related material.  I think, though, that
the advantage they offer is to their readers, not to the net in general.

-- 
scott preece
gould/csd - urbana
ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!preece