Newsgroups: can.jobs
Subject: Re: Commercial Postings
From: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay)
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 92 15:05:48 GMT
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA

In article <KIM.92Sep3231059@phaedrus.jts.com> kim@watnow.waterloo.edu writes:

>In article <handford.37@cs-acad-lan.Lakeheadu.Ca> handford@cs-acad-lan.Lakeheadu.Ca (B HANDFORD) writes:

>   I note a number of agency postings appearing in this news group. It was my 
>   understanding that the 20 million dollars of funding supporting the use of 
>   the internet specifically precludes the use of the net for commercial 
>   purposes. Would someone like to set me straight about this??

>You are possibly correct in the strict interpretation of Usenet's
>goals.  However, because many readers (including me) want to hear
>about interesting jobs through this and other job newsgroups, this is
>an acceptable and minor commercial encroachment on Usenet, which
>provides a timely and widely-read medium for the dissemination of this
>information.  There probably is no more effective and comprehensive a
>forum for computer-related jobs postings in the world.

I raised the issue of agency postings in this newsgroup some three or four
years ago, when this system first came on-line. My question initiated a
thread which continued for several weeks.             

In the end, the consensus was that agency postings would be acceptable on a
trial basis, to see how it would work out in the long run. There was also
some discussion about splitting the group and adding "can.jobs.agency" in
the event a great hue and cry was raised - a suggestion which I can't recall
ever being repeated since that time.

Several points were noted back then, including these:

1. The word "AGENCY" should appear on the Subject line
2. Agencies should only post real jobs - i.e. not use the net to collect
   resumes.

When Coast Personnel obtained their feed, I discussed these items with them,
and they agreed to act in accordance, as a "good net.citizen." I believe
that they have done just that, showing themselves to be responsive to the
wishes of the net. (Recently, when they began posting informative articles
about obtaining work in Canada, they received a complaint about changing the
subject lines on their articles, which created a minor annoyance for those
who added these postings to their KILL files. In order to eliminate that
issue, I began posting the articles from my site, using Kamen's post_faq,
which lent consistency to the matter and hopefully dealt with the
complaint.)

As an unemployed Canadian, I appreciate seeing their posts, simply because
every job posting, regardless of source, is a potential source of income for
me. As a UseNet site administrator (I have no connection with Coast,
although I know them well, and they contribute the grand sum of $85 a year
towards the maintenance of the ALMANAC.BC.CA domain park), I find them a
conscientious user - when it comes to net abuse, the Mutlu's of the world
preclude their inclusion on my bad.citizen list :-)

In addition to their job postings, which don't amount to much in terms of
bandwidth, Coast provides a useful service with their articles about
obtaining work visas, etc., for which they do not get compensated (i.e. a
non-commercial service), and they do so with the full co-operation of Canada
Employment and Immigration, which provided the material they publish
on a monthly basis. (Although I have not asked, I suspect that the traffic
they generate helping folks get information about immigration exceeds their
"commercial" traffic by a factor of 100.)

It is my belief that responsible agencies provide a valuable service to
users on the net, at no cost to those users, and I for one welcome them
here.
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Old Frog's Almanac - Public Access UseNet for Central Vancouver Island
     (604) 245-3205 (v32) (604) 245-4366 (2400x4) Waffle XENIX 1.64
Ladysmith, British Columbia, CANADA. kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken McVay)