On Tue, 29 Jun 2004, Martin Holmes wrote:
Hi all,
At 09:47 AM 29/06/2004, you wrote:
The question is what benefit does it get you by gatewaying it to usenet?
I much prefer usenet to any other way of handling discussion groups like this, if it's possible. Newsreaders are simple and fast, archiving is easy, and the technology is stable. If it were possible to read and post via both email and usenet, that would be perfect.
All of that is true, certainly, and I agree with the desires behind it. And yet, I think it is all true of email as well, isn't it? If I can play devil's advocate for a second, there are also downsides to making it available on usenet: easily accessible by the lowest common denominator rather than those who are really interested (that could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on perspective), increased difficulty in controlling spam, reliance on a multitude of networks to take up the newsgroup, etc. etc. I'm certainly not against the idea (as long as reading/posting by email stays as well), I just think we should take things one step at a time.
-James
--- Dr James Cummings, Oxford Text Archive, University of Oxford James dot Cummings at ota dot ahds dot ac dot uk