Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: In Moderation: A Moderator's Response Message-ID: <4521@ficc.uu.net> Date: 12 Jun 89 19:16:52 GMT References: <41197@bbn.COM> <12113@well.UUCP> <41207@bbn.COM> Organization: Xenix Support Lines: 24 In article , karl@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) writes: > I submit the hypothesis that, for purposes of restricting what can and > cannot be fed, "the Usenet" does not exist, and cannot be made to > exist. That is, "the Usenet" cannot be defined - there are too many > hooks into the system, too many different ways of looking at the same > thing, too many underlying transport mechanisms, to permit one to > create such a definition. Well, I don't know if this is still in the monthly posting... but last time I took note it defined Usenet proper is the set of sites recieving all messages in news.announce.important. If that's not rigorous enough for you, how about this: Usenet is the set of sites such that, if a given site receives a message in group X, it receives all messages in group X not crossposted to any group it explicitly excludes. The only exception is messages lost to hadware or software failures such as disk errors or full disks. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Personal: ...!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.