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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!we13!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!proper!geoff
From: geoff@proper.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: new newsgroups
Message-ID: <978@proper.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Feb-84 05:05:15 EST
Article-I.D.: proper.978
Posted: Mon Feb  6 05:05:15 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 13:25:56 EST
References: <514@pucc-h>
Organization: Proper UNIX, San Leandro, CA
Lines: 26

"Besides, what the hell is wrong with hitting the N key?"
					Darth Wombat

Well, Darth, it's like this.  I read news at 1200 baud, long distance from LA
to San Francisco, on my own time and money.  The 1200 baud is only because I
borrowed a modem from work;  my own mode is 300 baud (that's what I could
afford).  Every time 'readnews' prints a header it takes three to five
seconds;  it takes me another two to three to decide whether I want to see the
article and hit 'n'.  If I say yes and the article is over 16 lines, I also
have to pay several seconds while the San Francisco system loads 'more' for me.
Multiply this by the 50-100 articles that are posted weekly in an active
newsgroup like net.music, and you will see that I pay a lot of $$$ hitting the
'n' key and looking at the first 24 lines of articles I didn't really want to
see but that had poor subject lines.  (Yes, I can flame at the authors, but
that's not a cure--Usenet is big and grows rapidly.  I have no way to FORCE
Joe Schmuck to post subject lines that are relevant.  Even if he tries, I will
inevitably misunderstand at least occasionally).

In the case of net.music, where there is a clear subdivision, creation of a
new newsgroup will help immensely.  True, net.music.classical will not get
large numbers of postings, especially at the beginning--that's EXACTLY the
point!  I do not want to wade through endless discussions of the Circle Jerks
or whoever to get to the one intelligent discussion of Shostakovich.  To take
your comment to its extreme, why not just have a single giant newsgroup and
let people type "n" to every one of the thousands of articles that are posted
weekly?  I trust the answer is obvious.