From: bobmacd@well.sf.ca.us (Robert MacDowell)
Subject: Posting binaries in rec.railroad
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 04:09:34 GMT


Hello, my name is Robert MacDowell, and I've just discovered
rec.railroad.  I'm a train buff of eight years, and a director at the
Southern Michigan Railroad Society, which runs passenger service on an
NYC branch out of Toledo.  (As usual my opinions not the SMRS's...)
I'm just moving to San Francisco so I can take a train to work. :)

Someone commented that the group needs intelligent and interested
folk, and I like to think I am one... :-)

I rather hate that my first posting is a flame, but maybe it's a flame
that best comes from a newbie.  Especially since it has a direct
bearing on whether I am able to remain here, and maybe whether many
readers can remain here.

I hope I don't embarrass anyone, it's not my intent.
--------------

Tom Reilly said:
> If anyone happens to have any .gif color images/photos of the
> Pennsylvania RR, especially any steam locomotives, I'd appreciate it
> if you could post it here or send it to me via e-mail.
>
> I'm posting here because of the specialized nature of the subject
> :-) rather than in alt.binaries.pictures, etc.

It's a good idea to *ask* here for a message to be posted in
alt.binaries.pictures, but...

wmcfadde@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (William McFadden) sez:
> My sysadmin doesn't give us access to the alt.binaries.pictures.*
> newsgroups.  Can you consider posting this pictures, and others like
> it to this newsgroup,
>
>Thanks.
>Eric.

<flame-on>
Uh, folks, this is a **Bad** idea.  There's a REASON your sysadmin
doesn't carry alt.binaries.pictures.*.  He's not prepared to allocate
the many megabytes of disk space those feeds take up, or he doesn't
have the bandwidth to transfer them in and out.

Consider that a lot of sites are local BBS's, operated free by
volunteers who pay for the computers and hard disks out of their own
pockets, and ask little or nothing for the service.  They don't carry
alt.binaries.* because they can't afford the hard disk and bandwidth.
Many even get their feeds via modem!

Or a larger site is cleaning house.  Maybe a drive went down and they
can't afford a replacement.  Maybe new newsgroups formed that they
need to carry.  Maybe other critical newsgroups have increased in
traffic.  Like Loren Cantrell's situation:
> I want to add another argument against a seperate news group.  We've
> just been informed by sysadmin that because of the number of news
> groups, some will have to be deleted.  This means that most likely
> I'll never have access to aus.rail and will be lucky to keep
> rec.railroad.

Those sites exclude alt.binaries.* for a reason.  By posting a
near-megabyte GIF to rec.railroad, you circumvent their decision and
place a huge load on their hard drives and modems.  Most sysops don't
appreciate that.

Imagine this scenario:  Someone *finally* convinces their local sysop
to carry rec.railroad on his BBS.  The sysop is hesitant to carry a
group for just one user, but it seems to be pretty low traffic.
Then one night, while getting news feeds, the BBS crashes.  The sysop
investigates and finds one 1952 Porter 0-6-0T has lodged itself on his
hard drive.  Result:  the newsgroup is dropped by one very hacked off
sysop.

And the folks on rec.railroad suddenly and mysteriously lose a friend.

There are many readers of USENET, who for one reason or another can't
discriminate one message from the rest.  Either they download them all
in batch (like me), or their non-Unix newsreader doesn't allow them to
skip messages or use Kill-files.  Or they don't know how.  (Many of us
are railroad buffs NOT computer buffs.)

Ralph Marshall's sig is germane:
> "Whatever you think, you are under no compulsion to broadcast it.
> Free speech is a restraint on government, not an incitement to the
> citizen."
>         Dean Acheson to Harry Truman, regarding attacks on JFK

Well said.  Applies to GIF's.

Somebody posted:
> Subject: 717.01
> Lines: 971
>
> # This is part 1 of a multipart archive
> # do not concatenate these parts, unpack them in order with /bin/sh
> #
> # This shar contains:
> # length  mode       name
> # ------ ---------- ------------------------------------------
> # 493966 -rw-r--r-- 717.gif

This is the aforementioned Porter 0-6-0-T.

Nothing against the poster, or the person who asked for it, their
intentions were admirable. But IMHO it was a mistake for reasons cited
above.  E-mail or posting to an ftp are the right ways to handle this.
(How 'bout a alt.binaries.pictures.railroad? Seems natural given the
photographic tendencies of most railfans... :-)

<Flame-off>

I don't know.  I'm new.  Maybe people post binaries here all the time.
Maybe it's normal here and *I'm* out of line.  If so I apologize, and
you won't be seeing much of me (I can't handle the bandwidth), which
is too bad.

But if not, I'll try to hang around.

-- Bob MacDowell, who can't be too mad, he just spent a day in an
   RS-1325. :-]   I *want* one... actually I want *both*... :-)