Aharpo.176
net.news
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!eagle!mhtsa!harpo!jerry
Sat Dec 26 16:08:19 1981
Re: proposed newsnet policies
Mark's proposal has several components.  

1. Cash Free.  I don't see the point of this.  Does it forbid the
installation of netnews on a machine that normally charges for use?

2. "pers" newsgroups.  When I look at the groups, I see a 
continuum between "net.bugs." at the business end, and "net.jokes"
at the personal end.  I doubt that a single split between "pers"
and "net" will satisfy anybody.  Is there a site administrator 
who would take all the "net" and reject all of the "pers" (as
proposed by Mark)?

3. Rather than a committee to determine the names of groups,
I propose a group, "net.names".  The official procedure to create
a new group would be to announce a proposed new group in "net.general".
People interested in the group would reply via mail to the
originator, and any objections to the name be posted to "net.names".
After a few days the originator can make a decision on the name and
announce the creation of the group in "net.general".  Any discussion
of changes to the names of existing groups could also go in "net.names".

4. There is an important technical component to the question of who
pays for transmission of items.  If machine A sends news
to machine B, but B is pay for the phone calls, then it should be
possible for B to control what groups are transmitted.  As currently
implemented the only way to do this is to ask the the administrator 
of A to change A's "sys" file.  I hereby resurrect my old proposal for
a handshaking protocol in which A would say: I have 
"ucbvax.1008 in fa.sf-lovers" to transmit do you want it?  And B 
would either accept or reject the offer. 

5. Every attempt to promote responsable use of the network should
be encouraged.  In particular I am embarrassed by net.jokes.q,
and (are you listening Brian) if a note isn't worth creating in an
editor it isn't worth submitting.

						Jerry Schwarz
						harpo!jerry

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