Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!pyramid!uccba!hal!ncoast!allbery From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) Newsgroups: news.groups,news.admin Subject: Re: inet newsgroup creation policy Message-ID: <4762@ncoast.UUCP> Date: Sun, 27-Sep-87 21:39:05 EDT Article-I.D.: ncoast.4762 Posted: Sun Sep 27 21:39:05 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 29-Sep-87 04:30:20 EDT References: <4483@oberon.USC.EDU> <20890@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <6324@ut-ngp.UUCP> Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) Followup-To: news.groups Distribution: na Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh Lines: 52 Xref: mnetor news.groups:1591 news.admin:1043 As quoted from <6324@ut-ngp.UUCP> by kraut@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig): +--------------- | In article <20890@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Erik E. Fair) writes: | > it. Rich posted a 50% update about 6 weeks ago, pleaded incredible | > overload at work, said that there were many more updates in the | > queue (He does LoL in his "spare" time) and that he'd get back to | > it when he had more time. I haven't heard anything since. | ..... | > I also plead extreme disruption of my life for the last month and | > a half (I just moved for the first time in six years; still unpacking) | | Everyone knows these disruptions, but I am amazed that I have never | seen anyone ask for help in this situation. Maybe help is being | asked for - and provided - through private Email, but I cannot | but wonder why certain groups go into hibernation for months at | a time without the moderator/administrator even posting an | explanation or request for assistance. This is actually my strongest | reservation against moderated and digested groups, as I have seen +--------------- The problem is that sometimes there's no way to *get* in touch with the moderator. Examples: comp.sources.unix went dead earlier this year when Rich Salz abruptly left his job at Mirror Systems, and therefore did not have any net access until Rick Adams provided him with an account on UUNET; and I'm still flushing my buffers from when ncoast's news system blew up (scattering shrapnel all over the active file) earlier this (last?) week, so news access to me was questionable and mail was often backed up behind rejected news. I, at least, have tried to make arrangements so I can still communicate: the news admin at hal.UUCP is understanding about system problems, as hal's neighbor site mandrill sometimes suffers fits as well. But often there's no solution at all, since commercial sites don't always -- or maybe not even often -- have understanding sysadmins. I admit that this is a problem. But there is always _some_ indispensable person in the chain: Gene Spafford, Rick Adams, and Mark Horton for the Usenet at large, Rick Adams (again) for UUNET, the moderators for moderated newsgroups, the news admins at every site (cf. "Mark Ethan Smith"'s recent diatribes), the mail admins at every site, the _system_ admins at every site, Brian Reid and John Gilmore for the altnet, et cetera. Until the day comes when every system can administer itself perfectly and perfectly inter- act with every other system it ever exchanges data of any kind with, this will remain true. (Anarchy just guarantees maximum disruption when some key piece drops out of the system. Imagine the result if Rick Adams had pulled seismo from the Usenet without making arrangements for uunet to take over all its feeds but instead had let anarchy do its own thing, if you don't believe me.) -- Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc {{harvard,mit-eddie}!necntc,well!hoptoad,sun!mandrill!hal}!ncoast!allbery ARPA: necntc!ncoast!allbery@harvard.harvard.edu Fido: 157/502 MCI: BALLBERY <> "Mummy, what's an opinion?"