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From: msb@sq.uucp (Mark Brader)
Date: Sun, 27-Dec-87 01:50:06 EST
Message-ID: <1987Dec27.015006.1547@sq.uucp>
Newsgroups: misc.misc,news.misc
Subject: "We don't get that newsgroup here"
Summary: Then start a local one or arrange to get it or don't post
References: <202@aiva.ed.ac.uk> <793@its63b.ed.ac.uk> <2495@sfsup.UUCP> <603@acer.stl.stc.co.uk>
Reply-To: msb@sq.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto

A response from England to complaints about posting poems about cats in
misc.misc reads in part:

> You probably don't realise that the originator of the cat poems CAN'T post
> to only rec.arts.poems. This group is not available in the UK - in fact like
> many of the rec groups it doesn't come into Europe at all.    We could 
> campaign to get it, but as the European gateway machine is pretty well 
> at its maximum capacity with the groups it gets for us now, it is very 
> unlikely  ...
> 
> So the Europeans either don't post poetry, or send it to the next best group

No.  So the Europeans either don't post poetry, or start their own poetry
group (or groups) with European distribution or less, or start another
transatlantic gateway.  Just as people who don't get talk.abortion should
not post articles on abortion to soc.women, and [FLAME:] people who don't
get rec.arts.startrek should not post Star Trek articles to rec.arts.sf-
lovers [flame off].

If mcvax!piet doesn't want to carry rec.arts.poems on the transatlantic
links, this decision should be respected, regrettable as it may be to some.

This may sound harsh coming from North America where most groups reach
most places, but that may not necessarily continue to be true as traffic
keeps rising (we experienced a cutback period here in Toronto a couple
of years ago, for instance; some local shadows of netwide groups were
indeed established then).  If things got to where only the comp.*
groups were carried, would that give me a license to post cat poems to
comp.unix.questions, as the closest appropriate group?  (No.)

Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com
	"The conversation never became heated, which would have been difficult
	 in any argument where there is a built-in cooling-down period between
	 any remark and its answer."		-- Hal Clement, STAR LIGHT