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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!ecsvax!bch
From: bch@ecsvax.UUCP (Byron C. Howes)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Doomsday cometh (VERY LONG)
Message-ID: <369@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Sep-85 11:20:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.369
Posted: Fri Sep  6 11:20:43 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Sep-85 16:36:10 EDT
References: <781@vortex.UUCP>
Reply-To: bch@ecsvax.UUCP (Byron C. Howes)
Organization: N C Educational Computing Service
Lines: 63
Summary: 

In article <781@vortex.UUCP> lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) writes:
>It occurs to me that we're trying to hold back an ocean with
>a sponge.  Gang, there ain't NO WAY we can make this work.  
>It's doomed.  Strong statement?  Yep.

I agree.  Completely.

>In the short run, trying to control newsgroup proliferation will
>help hold off the day of reckoning, and I think we should do so.
>But in the medium/long run I think that Usenet, in its current form,
>has had it.  And medium-run may not be that far off.

I would say that the medium long run is here.  Articles are disappearing
somewhere on the net, garbage is creeping into the so-called "good"
newsgroups.  Net.bizarre has taken on a life of its own and is spilling
over into other groups (actually I though net.bizarre was an alias for
USENET.)


>Plus we have the increasing number of small nodes which will
>eventually swamp the larger sites in terms of sheer numbers.

Well, some old hands are more responsible for the proliferation of
small nodes than others.  :-> (grim amusement)

>It's going to be very sad to see this grand experiment slowly die,
>like a terminal patient being kept alive with life-support equipment
>but who gradually loses more and more of their sensibilities
>as they fade away.

I don't think we have to wait around watching the network die.  I think
we need to cut our losses and move on.  This is ridiculous!  We know
what the problems are, we know how to correct them, and all we need
to do is act rather than sitting around with our thumbs up our armpits
wailing and gnashing our teeth.

I propose net.fascism

Those who are aware and concerned about usenet's problems may not be
able to control *all* the sites on the net, but they can at least
exert influence at the backbone sites.  If it net.bizarre needs to
be destroyed, then simply refuse to transfer it up and down the
backbone.  If it is deemed necessary to destroy the soapbox groups,
the same can be done to them.  This groups may proliferate for a
while as local groups, but without the worldwide feedback they will
soon die out.  If not, well nobody is influencing the content of
purely local groups.

Ultimately if we want to destroy the entire structure of usenet and
replace it with moderated groups we can do that too.  All it takes
is a few key people in a few key places making a few key decisions.

I don my asbestos suit and await the flames of the terminally
libertarian and/or anarchic.  I am *tired* of folks bemoaning the
fate of usenet when, in fact, the fate of usenet is *our* responsibility.



-- 

                                              Byron Howes
					System Manager -- NCECS
				   ...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch