Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!nucsrl!gore
From: gore@eecs.nwu.edu (Jacob Gore)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Permanent Postings
Message-ID: <3720011@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 1 Feb 89 18:53:23 GMT
References: <6022@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Organization: Northwestern U, Evanston IL, USA
Lines: 25

/ news.admin / towfigh@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Mark Mehdi Towfigh) / Jan 31, 1989 /
>a large
>number of postings involve material, discussions, and points which
>have been rehashed time and again.  Postings by people on these same
>topics waste bandwidth, make it difficult to read high-volume
>newsgroups, and anger participants.
>
>While I believe that news.announce.newusers "Answers to Frequently
>Asked Questions" is a move in the right direction, responding to
>this trend, I am wondering if it might not even help more to attach
>a set of files, or "permanent postings" to each newsgroup, which
>people would (either voluntarily or perhaps, with news software,
>involuntarily) have to read upon subscription to a newsgroup.

This is really not as radical as it may seem.  Notes has an optional
permanent note in each group, called "the policy note", which is always
Note #0, and is not subject to expiration.  It's usually used for a policy
statement on how that group should be used.

There is no reason not to generalize on that concept, allowing more than
one such note, and allowing for network updates of it (via the
"Supersedes:" mechanism).

Jacob Gore				Gore@EECS.NWU.Edu
Northwestern Univ., EECS Dept.		{oddjob,gargoyle,att}!nucsrl!gore