🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4na8nl$89@madeline.INS.CWRU.Edu>,
Stephen C. Trier <trier@odin.INS.CWRU.Edu> wrote:
>I'm getting sick and tired of make-money-fast schemes and other off-topic
>drivel in what used to be useful and friendly Cleveland-area newsgroups.
>There's zilch about Cleveland; all the legitimate users are being flooded
>out by the spammers.
>[snip]
>How would folks feel about closing off cle.* from international distribution?
>We can ask newsadmins to stop forwarding it outside of the northeast Ohio
>area.  By looking at Path: lines, we can figure out who's leaking it and
>persuade them to stop.
>

Disagree.

I like to read conn.jobs now and then on the off-chance that I could land
a profitable and tax-deductible trip to see my folks in Connecticut and
Massachussets.  It's good that APK has the conn.* newsgroups here even if
I'm the only one who benefits.

Likewise, people like Dan Brown (in San Francisco) like to keep up with
cle.* because they like us.  :-)

The reality is that regional hierarchies do get distributed widely, and
I don't feel it's a bad thing.  It also gives you verbal ammunition for
spammers and velveeta producers in these situations:

  1. Spammer posts article of local Austin interest in cle.something.
  2. You write spammer to complain.
  3. Spammer writes, "Hey, people in Cleveland might want to visit my
     store next time they're in Austin, therefore it's valid for cle."
  4. You write spammer:
     a. "Too bad, still off-charter."
     b. "And if Cleveland people wanted to know about it, they would
        be able to read it in aus.something.  We get that here."

Item 4a won't change under your proposal, but 4b would be reduced.
Granted, you're not proposing cutting off all outside distribution of
cle.*, but the general principle still goes in that direction.  And
4a should be enough, but it's nice to throw 4b in their faces too.

I believe that for purposes of spam and velveeta deterrence we should
follow generally accepted with standard Usenet practice: flame the small
ones and cancel the large (BI >= 20) ones. 
-- 
Mark W. Schumann  | ObCDA: Rep. Martin Hoke is a poopy-head.