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From: lewis@axiom.UUCP (Lewis Gordon Pringle Jr.)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac,net.news
Subject: Re: INFO-MAC Goodies...
Message-ID: <183@axiom.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Mar-86 17:43:44 EST
Article-I.D.: axiom.183
Posted: Wed Mar 12 17:43:44 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 02:06:07 EST
Organization: Axiom Technology, Newton MA
Lines: 42
Xref: watmath net.micro.mac:5099 net.news:4666


berner@Navajo.ARPA (William Berner) writes:
>We are trying to figure out a long-term solution concerning 
>archiving of info-mac software.  Ideally, all of the Info-mac stuff 
>would be posted to net.sources.  Currently, I am asking those who 
>post to Info-Mac to also post to net.sources if possible, or to ask 
>someone they know to post it if they can't.  

I found a source archival service provided by the machine 'research'.
You send mail to an account 'netlib@research', and a program reads
your mail, and sends you a list of software available.  Then, you can
send another request for software, and it automatically sends you the
software.

This mechanism for archiving sources for the USENET would have the
disadvantage of involving lots of sending the same thing through one
site (if the program is popular), but would have MANY BIG advandtages.

No (or little) moderator intervention would be neccessary.  What ever
mechanism you use to put stuff on SUMEX could be modified to make the
same software available to the USENET.  While some things are very
popular, and you might get n copies of program X going to machine Y,
many programs are not so popular.  These get sent all over the
universe, and few people even try them.  For these programs, a
user-request mechanism would be a big win.

Also, what about all of those reposts, and people asking for the nth
time, 'now what is the latest version of frob, and how can I get it?',
or 'I am new to the net ... Where can I get a copy of binhex?'

Its not clear to me if the tradoffs between posting news to
net.sources.mac vs. this on-demand sending of stuff is the best.
Perhaps some compromise of the two methods would work out best.

						Appropriate Remarks,
								Lewis.
-- 

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