Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!udel!cranor From: cranor@udel.EDU (Chuck Cranor) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Binary groups need their own hierarchy Keywords: bin.* hierarchy Message-ID: <2687@louie.udel.EDU> Date: 24 May 88 04:39:22 GMT References: <397@pan.UUCP> <5284@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <231@mcf.UUCP> <4435@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com> <2676@louie.udel.EDU> <1008@xn.LL.MIT.EDU> Reply-To: cranor@udel.EDU (Chuck Cranor) Organization: University of Delaware Lines: 37 In article <1008@xn.LL.MIT.EDU> olsen@ll-xn.UUCP (Jim Olsen) writes: >In article <2676@louie.udel.EDU> cranor@udel.EDU (Chuck Cranor) writes: >>By putting binaries in thier own top level it requires action to >>*receive* binary news groups rather than block them. It's a great idea. >It's a terrible idea. We should not tinker with the newsgroup hierarchy >without good reason. This proposed change will create no new capability, >If this suggestion had come up during the Great Newsgroup Reorganization, >it might have been worth considering, since people had to change their >sys files anyway. Now that the hierarchy is stable, it is silly to >impose a piece of useless make-work on news administrators who are >already satisfied with their news configuration. Ah, but it easy to see [from the number of messages on the net] that a lot of news admins are not real happy about binary newsgroups. I personally think that binary newsgroups should be left to local BBS's and Compuserve type operations. The only reason I carry the groups is because they are part of the "standard" USENET newsgroup structure [and an awkward part of that structure too!]. The proposed change's "new capability" [which you seemed to have missed?] will be moving the binary newsgroups from the "standard" USENET newsgroup structure to an alternate one. That makes them an easy target for removal. People don't end up wasting time, money, and disk space by the default configuration. I don't think that the binary newsgroups would get too far if they were to try and make it on their own. Right now they are just abusing both the regular USENET backbone and the NNTP backbone with their multi-megabytes of binary garbage! [Well, at least the groups are moderated....] I also suggest you consider Rich Salz's comments on the computer virus in a binary newsgroup (message <758@fig.bbn.com>), and also the analysis that Chuq's did a while back on binary groups.... Chuck UDel News Admin -- Chuck Cranor University of Delaware PHONE: (302)-451-6660 (UDel), (302)-737-5852 (home) ARPA: cranor@udel.EDU, UUCP: ...!!udel.edu!cranor "I'd like to see John the Baptist's impersonation of Graham Hill." - R.J. Gumby