Too much cross-posting?

[woods at eci386.UUCP]

In article <240 at gnosys.UUCP> gst at gnosys.UUCP (Gary S. Trujillo) writes:
> In article <674 at whizz.uucp> bbh at whizz.UUCP (Bud Hovell) writes
> 	(not necessarily in the following order):
> > Over the past several months, I've become increasingly aware of the huge
> > percentage of articles which cross-post between comp.sys.att and unix-pc.*.
> > When I get into comp.sys.att (second in order in my .newsrc), I find
> > myself virtually wearing out the 'n' key...
> 
> Well, I don't think cross-posting is inherently a bad thing, since (at least
> under UNIX implementations of the network news software) cross-postings are
> implemented by means of links, so no extra disk space is utilized.  The
> benefits of cross-postings include the fact that they can achieve a wider
> distribution for certain articles whose subject matter straddle the categ-
> ories defined by existing newsgroups.

That's not the point!  Since rn doesn't go get the message id's
for the articles you have read when it starts, assuming it could,
you can easily end up re-reading things if you don't have the
luxury of being able to leave one rn running for the entire day.
I often read groups several at a time, then do other things.  Rn
simply cannot do Xref matching when you start and stop it between
groups, and I don't think it should either!

I don't see how wider distribution of unix-pc stuff will help, when
most of those who are interested already get the unix-pc groups, and
those who don't should.  It only serves to over-clutter comp.sys.att
with a real mess of stuff which most comp.sys.att only readers don't
want to see.  (I read both groups!)  Cross-posting *_IS_* inherently
bad when it clutters up other groups.  That's why we have groups in
the first place.

Perhaps unix-pc.general should be renamed comp.sys.att.unix-pc, but
remain on the "alternate newsgroups" list.  This might help prevent
some of the useless clutter.

PLEASE do not cross-post Unix PC related articles to comp.sys.att!
-- 
						Greg A. Woods

woods@{eci386,gate,robohack,ontmoh,tmsoft,gpu.utcs.UToronto.CA,utorgpu.BITNET}
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