Re: MORON!!!! (was: Great rail pics - sample attached)

[Andrew Reid <reida@nwu.edu>]

Alleyn Boucher wrote:
> 
> Perhaps I am missing something but just what is Geoff Cryer's crime?
> His url directs you to a site that is a rail site albeit a pom one.
> But there is discussion of UK railways here from time to time so it is
> not that, and I really cannot think what the problem is -  then it
> dawned on me. Geoff Cryer is guilty of creating something positive for
> others to enjoy, and moronic dogooders like Jack and Megan cannot
> abide that.
> The only way that people like J & M can bring attention to themselves
> is by being destructive, it gives them a feeling of power. It is very
> sad.

  The binary posting when appropriately to 
alt.binaries.pictures.rail, but was also crossposted to 
several text newsgroups.  *That* was Goeff Cryer's
slip-up.

  Posting binaries to text newsgroups is a bad idea 
for a variety of reasons, outlined below.  Bandwidth and
disk space get cheaper all the time, but Usenet traffic
increases so far have kept pace.  The day may yet come when
binaries on Usenet are routine, but for now, 
here are the reasons why not:

Traffic:  The people who own and run news-servers do so 
on the understanding that the feed will be manageable,
and that it will behave predictably, according to the 
UseNet RFCs.  This predictability comes in part from
predictable behavior from individual users.  Nobody is
obliged to propagate your messages, and if newsgroups
becomes difficult to manage, servers may drop them.  

Legal:  It is a violation of the Terms of Service of many
Internet Service Providers to post binaries in text
newsgroups -- after all, ISPs are also news-server
operators.
 
Distribution:  Many servers and/or ISPs will not propagate 
binary articles in text newsgroups, so an awesome binary 
posted to a text newsgroup will not be seen by everybody,
and (probably, haven't checked lately) won't be archived
at DejaNews.

Courtesy:  Some users, especially outside of North America,
pay for their connectivity by the minute or by the byte.
The unpredictable arrival of a large binary will cost 
these users real money.

Audience limitation:  Some users who receive your 
posts will be using a text-based newsreader such as 
tin or trn, and will be presented with screens-full of
meaningnless uuencoding.

  Of course, a single binary posting to a single newsgroup 
won't bring down the net, and much of what is a problem with
binaries is also true of large text postings, which do occur.
However, large text postings like FAQs and such are accounted
for in the RFC's, are more or less predictable, and are of 
course designed to actually *save* bandwidth, by pre-emptively
answering questions so that individual posts asking/answering 
the frequent questions become unnecessary.
 
  There's some (slightly dated) info on how UseNet works at 
<http://www.netannounce.org/news.announce.newusers>.

  Please add me to the list of moronic dogooders, as I 
also desire attention and a feeling of power.

				-- A.