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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!convex!ndm20!tp
From: tp@ndm20
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: The politics of groups and the
Message-ID: <4000007@ndm20>
Date: Sun, 22-Sep-85 18:25:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ndm20.4000007
Posted: Sun Sep 22 18:25:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 08:37:25 EDT
References: <719@psivax.UUCP>
Lines: 60
Nf-ID: #R:psivax.UUCP:-71900:ndm20:4000007:000:3139
Nf-From: ndm20!tp    Sep 22 17:25:00 1985


>	Well, I, for one, feel that telling another site what groups
>it can and cannot recieve is completely out of line.  If the other

It is completely in-line (?)  to decide what groups you  want to send
out, because you have  to pay  to send  it, or  at least  tie up your
resources (modem, cpu, etc).  On the other hand, nobody  can tell you
what you can or can not recieve, because you  can always  get it from
anybody else in the world who has it.   You may  have to  pay for it,
but if you only want it on the condition that somebody else foots the
phone  bill, I  expect few  around here  will have  sympathy for you,
especially the backbone sites.  

>immediately after delivery! I would certainly hate to come some
>morning and find my favorite groups cut off without a word!

If they do, find someone who has it and  connect directly  to them to
get that one group.  We all take the  backbone too  much for granted.
They don't have to send news around the world and  pay the  bills.  I
for one am grateful that they do.  If they  decide that  they want to
reduce their generosity and not  pay $$$  to ship  net.flame all over
the net, that is their right, and rather than moaning about the loss,
we should all thank them for continuing  to provide  the service that
they still provide.  If you still want  the group,  find someone else
that has it.  You can then redistribute it yourselves in your area.  

This net  is not  dependent on  the backbones  for existence.   It is
ihnp4's right to leave the net if  they choose.   The  net won't die.
If the entire backbone disappeared, after  the chaos  cleared the net
would still exist.  The phone bills would  shift to  other sites, the
net would reconfigure itself, news feeds  would adjust,  and we would
still be here.  Those  sites who  are not  interested unless  it is a
free ride  might be  gone, if  there were  no local  sites to support
them.  (After talking to my management, I  might find  myself in that
situation.)  Those who thought the net  was worth  having would still
have it.

I for one am very thankful to  the backbone  and to  convex (the site
that  pays  most  of  the  long-distance  for  me  and  others in the
Dallas-Ft.  Worth area).  If any of those sites drops a  group that I
am  interested in,  I won't  even grumble  unless they  do it without
telling me far enough in advance to get another feed for it (which is
certainly their right, but not very  courteous).   If I  can't find a
local site with it, I'll decide whether I want  it bad  enough to pay
for it.  If I do, I'll find someone willing to  let me  call them and
get it.   And  because I  really believe  in this  concept, I'll then
re-distribute it to the rest  of the  DFW area,  including convex, if
they want it.  

To those of you generous enough to  support this  wonderful medium of
information  exchange,  thank  you.   Your generosity  is not totally
unappreciated by those of us who benefit from it.

Thanks,
Terry Poot
Nathan D. Maier Consulting Engineers
(214)739-4741
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