[R] Newsgroup - another try?

[Kjetil Kjernsmo]

On 4 Sep 2001, Peter Dalgaard BSA wrote:

>  - Newsgroups easily become spamtraps unless someone actively cancels
>    articles

This may or may not happen. It is also possible to robot-moderate a
newsgroup, in which you can have the same spam filters.

>  - Some people do not have news access.

They can use Google groups.

>    Some lists solve this by a
>    bidirectional mail-to-news gateway, but it is not without problems.

I haven't seen any problems with a bidirectional mail<->news gateway. It
seems unproblematic to me... What are the problems?

>  - News works by a flooding algorithm. Messages may take different
>    routes from newsfeed to newsfeed. *You* may have a quick news
>    server, but I subscribe to several groups where I get messages
>    with response preceding the question and sometimes delayed by days
>    - a full newsfeed generates gigabytes of traffic each day and
>    sometimes machines or communication lines clog up. The rapid
>    response you see on newsgroups is sometimes deceptive: Your
>    message shows up immediately on your nearby news server, but you
>    have no idea when it will show up for the guy you are replying to.

True.

>  - You can actually get mail readers that sorts mail into folders by
>    mailing list and organize it into threads. Mine for instance...

Mine too... :-) (That is, I use procmail)


Actually, I think a newsgroup with a bidirectional mail<->news gateway is
a great idea.

As for the process, I don't know it exactly, though I read about it years
ago. I think the point is that you post a Request for Discussion (RFD) to
appropriate newsgroups and mailing lists. The discussion is then to take
place in a designated newsgroup for the purpose of discussing new groups
(I think it may be news.groups or something).

After a period of discussion, one has to find a "uninterested" third
party volunteer. There are many who does this. Then, you post a Call for
Votes (CFV), and there are rules as to how many votes you need (quite
conservative). This is for the sci. and similar hierarchies. For the alt.
hierarchy, anybody can make a newsgroup. I think all you need is a PGP
key to identify yourself.

Vennlig Tiddeli-bom,

Kjetil
-- 
Kjetil Kjernsmo
Graduate astronomy-student                    Problems worthy of attack
University of Oslo, Norway            Prove their worth by hitting back
E-mail: kjetikj at astro.uio.no                                - Piet Hein
Homepage <URL:http://folk.uio.no/kjetikj/>
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