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From: seifert@hammer.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.mail,net.news.group
Subject: Re: abuse of the net
Message-ID: <2044@hammer.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-May-86 14:50:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: hammer.2044
Posted: Wed May 21 14:50:33 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 23-May-86 02:10:28 EDT
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Reply-To: tekecs!doghouse.TEK!snoopy (Snoopy)
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In article <3710@sun.uucp> chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
>> I don't see why UNIX machines should be expected to pay for distributing
>> software and discussions for other operating systems.  Why can't they
>> set up their own network?  Disk space and phone lines aren't free for
>> machines that run UNIX anymore than they are for machines that run
>> mac/amiga/ST/PC-DOS/VMS/whatever.
>
>Because there is a large base of users of those machines that happen to be
>using Unix machines to communicate.

My question is, "Since they have these other machines, why can't they
use these other machines for discussions about these machines?"

> If you're serious about limiting yourself to Unix discussions,
> we need to kill everything else off except Unix, which would kill the net.

That's not what I'm proposing at all.  The (well-known) problem is,
that the amount of traffic on usenet is getting completely out of hand.
Too many resources are being consumed, and WE have to do something to
fix this before the plug gets pulled on the whole net.  There are a number
of causes for the amount of traffic, including the growth in the number
of sites, ignorant newusers making mistakes, bozos, problems with
hardware and software, etc.

What can we do to reduce the amount of traffic without reducing the
usefulness of the net?

- make the hardware and software more robust
- educate newusers
- kick abusers off the net (after several warnings)
- go to moderated groups
- put traffic for non-unix machines on those machines, making them
	carry their own weight. (since they can)
- kill groups with high volume and very poor signal-to-noise ratios

I don't really like the idea of having to go to moderated groups,
since that creates a lot of work for the moderator (which would
be unnecessary if only people would control themselves), and raises
the possibility of censorship.  But if well done, it could help
increase the signal-to-noise ratio and lower the load on the net.

I also don't like the idea of killing groups, but "those-in-charge"
are doing it now (ala net.flame and net.bizzare).  There is a problem
with identifying which groups to kill, as one person's garbage is
another's treasure.

Having non-unix machines carry their own traffic seems like a very
good way to reduce the load on the Unix machines without killing
the traffic.  It's fair, and it allows people who don't have access
to a Unix machine to participate.

I've seen three followups to my article, none of which have given
any reasons why other machines couldn't set up their own network.

Snoopy
tektronix!tekecs!doghouse.TEK!snoopy