Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watdragon.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watdragon!cjsgro
From: cjsgro@watdragon.UUCP (Carlo Sgro)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: Is net.sources beyond hope?
Message-ID: <345@watdragon.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Feb-86 12:09:01 EST
Article-I.D.: watdrago.345
Posted: Sun Feb  9 12:09:01 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 05:07:22 EST
References: <478@kepler.UUCP> <247@maynard.UUCP> <9177@amdcad.UUCP> <122@jpusa1.UUCP> <811@decuac.UUCP>
Reply-To: cjsgro@watdragon.UUCP (Carlo Sgro)
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 47
Keywords: net.sources, rn, unsubscribing, newusers, new
Summary: rn fix needed?


In article <811@decuac.UUCP> avolio@decuac.UUCP (Frederick M. Avolio) writes:
>In article <122@jpusa1.UUCP>, stu@jpusa1.UUCP writes:
>> ...  If someone who really cared would post
>> a short article giving tips on what should go to mod.sources, ...
>
>In mod.newslists and net.announce.newusers I find the following:
>
<< list of net.announce.newusers postings >>
>
>In each mod group, such as mod.sources, rules are posted periodically.
>The information is there.  There is no way to force people to read it.

Maybe one of the reasons that they are not read has to do with the (probable)
behaviour of new net users when confronted with the volumes of news that
exist when they read news for the first time.  After all, there is nothing 
that is more non-conducive to reading news than finding out that there are
hundreds (or thousands) of articles unread in a newsgroup.  I know that, 
upon starting on a new system and reading news, the only keys that I hit
are 'u' (in the case of groups that I am uninterested in) and 'c' followed
by 'y' (in the case of groups that I am interested in).  It doesn't pay
to do *any* news reading on an initial try.

Thus, I propose the following change to the next version of rn:
 - Make it illegal to use the 'u' to unsubscribe from 'special' newsgroups.
   The concept of 'special' would be defined by the system administrator at
   each individual site.  Groups that could fall under this category could
   be net.announce.newuser and net.news.group.  This would *only* prevent
   mindless unsubscribing; the freedom of choice to go into your .newsrc
   and delete it manually would still be there.  Similarly, the use of 'c'
   to clear 'special' newsgroups would also be illegal.  The definition 
   of 'special' for this function would probably be limited to low volume 
   newsgroups (since it is plausible that there could be hundreds of 
   postings in something like net.news.group).  Another option for the
   limiting of 'c' would be to have three options when it asks you
   to verify your choice:  'n' means "no, I change my mind", 'y' means
   "clear this newsgroup if it is *not* a special newsgroup", 's' means
   "clear this newsgroup if it *is* a special newsgroup".  This would
   prevent mindless clearing of important newsgroups (since people 
   would still be going 'cy' mindlessly) but enable the user to clear a 
   special newsgroup if he/she really wanted.

--
Carlo Sgro
...![ihnp4||decvax||allegra||clyde||utzoo]!watmath!watdragon!cjsgro

"ihnp4 Express:  Overnight to the USA or you don't pay!"