Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!rochester!rutgers!att!alberta!ubc-cs!van-bc!sl
From: sl@van-bc.UUCP (pri=-10 Stuart Lynne)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Adding commercial access to Usenet
Keywords: news BIX
Message-ID: <2227@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: 13 Feb 89 20:17:51 GMT
References: <796@n8emr.UUCP> <4524@inco.UUCP> <206@bixpb>
Reply-To: sl@van-bc.UUCP (pri=-10 Stuart Lynne)
Organization: Wimsey Associates, Vancouver, BC.
Lines: 41

In article <206@bixpb> bensmith@bixpb.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) writes:
>
>It is true that BIX is considering posting some of the NetNews articles
>in a conference for just that purpose. The reasoning as follows:

Personally I think that that would be a good thing.

>   (2) The articles are editited to include only valuable article of
>       interest to BIX readers (this may be considered either a service
>       or a limitation, depending on your point of view.

I think that it is important that retain *all* information in the body of
the article, without change.

Further there should be an easy to use mechanism that allows your readers to
reply either by mail to the author of an article; or with a followup news
article. 

If you don't have a bi-directional flow of information I don't think the net
will be interested in having you join.

>   (3) NetNews may seem to be free, but someone is actually having to
>       pay the phone bills, the disk space, the administration time.
>       The idea that the news is free is very naive. BIX is actually
>       an inexpensive system for individuals.

I think that it is simply a tradeoff, an expensive 286/386 with Unix vs. a
pc with procomm plus line charges. Kind of like the difference between
buying and renting. I have no problem as long as BIX is not charging a
surcharge for access to this type of information.

>However, if there is an overwhelming negative reaction to net users about
>the possibility of having their articles appearing on one more machine
>after being transmitted to tens of thousands around the world, we would
>not pursue the plans to bring NetNews to BIX. 

As long as you are not restricting how the articles are forwarded by your users there shouldn't be any problem. 


-- 
Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca {ubc-cs,uunet}!van-bc!sl     Vancouver,BC,604-937-7532