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From: rst@tardis.UUCP (Robert Thau)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Proposed deletion of Rich Rosen
Message-ID: <10108@tardis.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Nov-85 09:57:50 EST
Article-I.D.: tardis.10108
Posted: Mon Nov 18 09:57:50 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Nov-85 05:45:44 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Harvard University, Cruft Lab (TARDIS)
Lines: 73

Yes, I'm serious.  If net.bizarre and net.flame were threats to the
networks's continued existence, then Rich Rosen is doubly so.  Let's
examine the facts:

Rich Rosen's volume is enormous.  His postings comprise two percent
of the network's volume.  Remember, that's two percent of the backbone
sites' phone bills.  This is top twenty *newsgroup* volume no matter
how you count.  Expressed as a raw number of bytes per week, the
number is horrendous.  It is impossible for one man to produce this much
cogent thought in a week.  Speaking only for myself (perhaps a poor
comparison) I don't think I could even type that fast.  What's worse:

Rich Rosen causes articles to be posted to the net which otherwise
would not have appeared.  I am referring in particular to followups to
his postings, which are generally as large and as obnoxious as the
originals.  When the followup is unfavorable, Rosen tends to riposte
with more of the same --- and yes, there are positive feedback loops.
Net.philosophy, for example, is one.  The Larry Palena---Doug Alan---
Rich Rosen---Paul Kirsch flame axis in net.music is another.  Above all:

Rich Rosen's articles have an extremely low signal-to-noise ratio.
Many (most?) of his postings are point-by-point replies; often,
most of the text was previously posted.  Transmitting this text is
an utter waste.  What little he has to say is blasted out so many
times one gets sick of reading it.  For instance, he recently posted
an article in net.music saying that he did not like the Grateful Dead
album Terrapin Station.  He has since posted at least twenty more
articles which point out that he does not like the Grateful Dead album
Terrapin Station, and he will no doubt keep it up until the Deadheads
that disagree with him are exhausted.

Due to his high volume and near-total lack of redeeming value, I propose
that Rich Rosen be removed from USENET.  In order to preserve the usual
facade of democracy, I'm doing this as a poll.  I will take replies (by
mail only please), and after two weeks, forward the results (pro or con)
to the net and to pyuxd!root.  Help stamp out cretinism!!!

********************* EXIT SATIRE MODE ************************

This is only partially in jest.  I *do* wish the man would shut up.
However, high-volume posters, like high-volume newsgroups, are red
herrings for the real problem, which is that too many people are
posting too much.

There are two possible solutions.  Moderation is one.  However, it
has problems.  Finding moderators that people will respect is going
to be difficult.  Dealing with poor performance on the part of a
moderator could be next to impossible.  Lastly, the increased delay
times of a moderated group would (or at least, could) wipe out
discussions on the net; I don't believe this is a Good Thing.

The other solution is to encourage restraint, and above all, to show
it.  Quite simply, if every posting to the net (or even most of them)
had some original content, the volume problem would go away; people
simply can't think that fast.  Now for the $64,000 question:  can we
get there from here?

I don't think it's impossible.  The "obligatory joke" rule of net.jokes
has no software enforcement, yet since this custom arose there have
been very, very few completely inappropriate postings to jokes.  The
reason:  anyone dumb enough to try it gets flamed into oblivion.
(Hate mail may be ugly, but it sometimes works).

However, keep in mind, the problem is not *them*, it is *us*.
(I don't mean to belittle the problems of backbone admins, but the
"the net is dying" postings are getting monotonous.  It's not
that you aren't thoughtful, it's just that of late your postings
are all thoughtful in precisely the same way.  This also goes for
any postings on net.sources.mac, pro *or* con).  Net.news.group is a
high volume newsgroup.  If everybody's seen it, we don't need to
see it again.  Let's all reduce net volume.  Don't post.
---
rst@tardis