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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!uunet!steinmetz!vdsvax!barnett
From: barnett@vdsvax.steinmetz.UUCP (Bruce G Barnett)
Newsgroups: news.groups,news.misc,news.stargate,news.sysadmin,news.admin
Subject: Re: EndOfSourcesList+AnnouncementOfNetOmbudsman -- communication?
Message-ID: <1917@vdsvax.steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-Jul-87 13:56:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: vdsvax.1917
Posted: Wed Jul  1 13:56:46 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 3-Jul-87 01:41:59 EDT
References: <266@brandx.rutgers.edu> <8225@utzoo.UUCP> <272@brandx.rutgers.edu>
Reply-To: barnett@steinmetz.UUCP (Bruce G Barnett)
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 98
Keywords: Bozo WEBBERnews incomprehensible
Summary: Bugs Bunny says - What a Maroon!
Xref: mnetor news.groups:1139 news.misc:662 news.stargate:213 news.sysadmin:257 news.admin:585

In article <272@brandx.rutgers.edu> webber@brandx.rutgers.edu (Webber) writes:
>Of
>course, my basic understanding of C News is that it is an attempt to
>make the same old mistakes run faster.  Much more interesting would
>be to abandon the notion of backwards compatibilty.  This would yield
>a new net that was initially smaller and preserved many of the virtues
>of the old Usenet.  Of course, as always, connectivity would be a 
>problem.  

My initial reaction was to ignore the message. But I'll play Devil's
advocate.

Let me try to understand your "WEBBERnews" scheme.
I will take the position of a net worshiper who listens to his
net-gods - who have wisely decided that WEBBERnews is the proper direction.
I will also assume that Bob Webber has everyone's gratitude for
writing WEBBERnews himself.

Now you tell me:
    I have to maintain two different news facilities simultaneously.
    This means duplicate spool directories, executables, news readers, etc.
    Twice as much work, plus potentially twice as much disk space, etc.

My Reaction:
	Well, that is a lot of extra work. But the gods say it must be
	worth it.

You tell me:
	No articles from USENET appear in WEBBERnews.
   
My Reaction:
	Well, it would be faster if there were no articles.
	By the way, how did you test out WEBBERnews? How long have you
	been using it and under what conditions have you tested it? (assuming
	there is no compatibility with Rev B news) Oh, I see. You
	haven't *really* tested it.

You tell me:
	No article in WEBBERnews appears in USENET.

My Reaction:
	Okay - let me get this straight. We have these two different
	bulletin board systems, each with different newsgroups,
	conversation chains, kill files, etc. I would need two
        different news readers, archivers, etc. Everyone is using the
	old system, and *magically* everyone starts using WEBBERnews,
	because there are no articles posted.

	I think I am lost already.

You tell me:
    The two news systems are incompatible. That is - they store news
    in different formats, reside in different directories, use
    different means of receiving/sending news, keep track of duplicate
    articles using different systems. Therefore we need two different
    sets of inews, mail forwarding systems, history files, etc.

My Reaction:
	Boy! Bob - you must be some hotshot programmer! How many years
	did you spend doing this?

You might tell me:
    The good stuff would be posted to both groups. Especially
    sources. But since WEBBERnews and USENET are incompatible, this
    would mean duplicate copies of all of the large postings.
    And since WEBBERnews doesn't have the silly moderated distinction,
    it will be bigger and cost more than old Rev B. And I would have
    to support BOTH during the conversion.

My Reaction:
    So now I have to handle potentially twice as much news as the old
    system. Well, my system is at capacity. I can't double the
    resources handling news. How am I going to convert over?
    As for sources, if they are good, they will be posted to
    both groups. If they are CR*P, only WEBBERnews has it.

You tell me:
    At such-a-date, everyone will stop using USENET and start using
    WEBBERnews. 

My Reaction:
    To quote Bugs Bunny: What A Maroon! 
    When is Rev C going to be ready? I need to reduce the load on my CPU.

[ p.s.    Gene - you are doing a GREAT JOB! ]

>Of course this is completely different from the `alternative
>backbone' silliness that I find quite incomprehensible.
>------ BOB (webber@aramis.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!webber)

Yes, Bob - it is a different approach. 

Mr. Webber, I find YOU "quite incomprehensible"

--
"Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
-- 
Bruce G. Barnett  (barnett@ge-crd.ARPA) (barnett@steinmetz.UUCP)