Asri-unix.581 net.news.group utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!sjk Tue Jan 19 18:39:21 1982 Re: net.micro Perhaps there is a reasonable way to comment entries in the "active" file (in news version 'B', I forget what's what in 'A') and provide methods for retrieving this information in situation-dependent ways. For example, if a user wants to create a new group he could first consult the active list and its comments to find a relevent group. Of course, a more experienced UseNetter would only wish to peruse subsets such as "net.all" or "fa.all". Other situations should be foreseeable, I won't discuss them here except for the issue of adding the comments to the "active" file. There seem to be a couple obvious ways: 1) when a newsgroup is created prompt for the comment, or 2) manually edit the file. The first solution appears nicer, but how is the comment info passed between sites? And with either solution, who provides the initial comments to be installed at every (hmm) site? The second method is more voluntary and would perhaps only be needed at sites with more "novice" (and fewer overall?) news participants. Anyway, either this comment scheme or something similar could be useful in lessening the number of unwanted newgroups. Thoughts? scott ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.