Xref: utzoo news.misc:1073 news.config:378
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!matt
From: matt@oddjob.UChicago.EDU (Maxwell House Daemon)
Newsgroups: news.misc,news.config
Subject: Re: The USENET Backbone (Last changed: 10 December 1987)
Message-ID: <14203@oddjob.UChicago.EDU>
Date: 4 Jan 88 22:00:43 GMT
References: <2802@arthur.cs.purdue.edu> <14191@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> <2844@arthur.cs.purdue.edu>
Organization: Backwards R Us
Lines: 70

Gene Spafford writes:

) If some admin sends mail to the backbone list and shows they meet
) all the other requirements *and* they request to be added to the
) list, I add them to the list.  Those requirements include more that
) just recent software and reliable mailers, btw.   ...
) 
) I'm not sure what you are upset about, considering that your posting is
) the first thing I can recall seeing from you on the subject.

Typical.  A year or more ago I wrote you mail about this.  You never
replied.  About 5 months ago I posted.  You responded, saying that
you never saw my mail.  (And my mailer works quite well, young man.)
Now you say you saw neither the very old mail nor the very article
you answered!  That kind of makes your following words a little lame:

) Also, may I suggest that next time you consider some e-mail or a
) more restrained posting to discover the facts before you blast away
) in public?

My primary objection is that every month you post a message saying "A
backbone site is one which has properties A, B and C."  Anyone can
see that there are other requirements which are not mentioned.  You
yourself admit that there are.  At the time of my first writing there
was a "backbone" site that clearly didn't meet even the publicly-
stated part of the conditions.  That one is gone now, but there seems
to be another such.  Someone has drawn my attention by mail to
another dubious case.

) ... Rather, "backbone" is an informal designation intended to ...
)  improve news propagation, ...

If that is the goal, then maybe the backbone should be defined as
those sites that appear most often in the "Path" lines.

) ... find where to obtain the latest news software, ...

Oh?  In that case the backbone is simply uunet!  Point everyone there.

) ... know where to obtain experienced and (usually) cooperative
) assistance ...

In that case, list the backbone SAs' phone numbers along with the
drawing!

) provide reliable "anchor" service for UUCP mail, 

Like husc6 that for weeks sent out a ".UUX" on the end of uucp
addresses?  Like rutgers, which prompted one user at ihlpl to write:

	ps. Please be advised that rutgers eats ALL my personal
	correspondents, and if anyone knows how to circumvent that
	machine, I'll be eternally greatful.

?  Or like hao, which turns domainful "!" addresses into mixed "!"
and "@"?


) and provide a very knowledgeable and experienced group of news
) users and admins to discuss items of mutual interest and develop
) new software.

Now we're getting down to the real intent, at least as it is
perceived by the outsiders.  The backbone are those people who want
to make the rules, insofar as there are any at all.


This has gotten more rabid than I intended to get, but I still stand
by the content.
				Matt Crawford