On 24 Aug 00, at 14:02, Bernie Cosell wrote:
> On 24 Aug 00, at 9:10, Anthony J. Albert wrote:
>
> > Newsgroups are superior, in some aspects, to mailing lists, for
> > discussion purposes. But out of the two dozen or so mailing lists
> > that I'm on, the first dozen are announcement only, and only about
> > six of the rest, I'd judge, would be suitable for conversion to
> > newsgroups.
> >
> > My biggest argument against newsgroups for every discussion is the
> > waste of it. Every newsgroup that is carried on an international
> > basis must be carried on every news server that is hosting these
> > groups.
>
> Not true. Anyone can run a news server. Microsoft has a whole pile
> of 'private' newsgroups. The Zone-Labs folk provide tech
> discussion/support via privately run newsgroups... That's why I
> distinguished 'usenet' from 'newsgroups'. You don't need to propagate
> a newsgroup anywhere or if you do, you can arrange [with the other
> sysops] exactly where a particular newsgroup will/can propagate.
>
> Also means you don't have to worry about the 'rules' for usenet --- if
> you're running a private newsgroup, you can just create it, no need
> for fancy-charters on news.announce or debates on alt.config or the
> like... You can also restrict who has access to the newsgroups, who
> has posting permission, etc...
That's true, but what mailing lists can do that newsgroups cannot is
restrict access/posting permission on a *list by list* basis. AFAIK,
all available news server software is on an all-or-nothing basis.
Jim Trigg
