Aihps3.185 net.news utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!ihps3!pcl Mon Jan 11 23:06:56 1982 News Group Names: Confounding distribution with content (long message) All of the news group naming schemes that have been proposed so far, as well as the existing system, combine two distinct pieces of information that I believe would be better separated. The main information, which is all that should be in the name of a news group, is the categorization (and possibly sub-categorization) of the content of the news items. Thus, we have 'taxes' and 'rec.ski'. The other information, which I am proposing be separated out from the first, is the range of distribution that news item is to receive. Currently, this is encoded by the top-level categorization, leading us here at Indian Hill (for example) to have ih.* news groups (just for distribution to Indian Hill sites) and btl.* for Bell Labs wide stuff, in addition to the net.* and fa.* groups shared with everyone. The problem is that, although content and distribution are frequently correlated (e.g. "it's in fa.sf-lovers iff it should go to every site on the net" is almost always true), they aren't always. Whenever they aren't correlated, we get a tendency towards a factorial combination of news-groups X distribution-range, creating nightmares for Usenet site administrators and probably not serving the best interests of the whole community. If I, as a Usenet user, have decided that I am interested in UNIX (TM) wizardry, I should be able to receive 1) an announcement of a slide show here at Indian Hill on the origins of UNIX and 2) solicitations for material to be included in the Bell Labs UNIX coloring book (proprietary, and thus not to be discussed outside of the Labs), as well as 3) the full- distribution net.unix-wizards. And I should get all of this from ONE entry in my subscription list! (And conversely, I should be able to contribute items on any topic to any Usenet community of which I am a part, even if that topic is usually spread among a larger or smaller community.) Although my example above may be fictitious, I have seen a few instances bordering on this, and expect to see more as use of the net on multiple 'levels' grows. Shall we be prepared? Paul Lustgarten Bell Labs - Indian Hill ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.