Well...I'm the UI news adiministrator so I guess I should respond. It is
the UI policy to only allow newsreader access from addresses on campus or
from SLIP/PPP connections on our terminal server. The
few national sites that allow general access to news restrict such
access to off-hours. The UI is in no position to support general
news access.
The suggestion was that we allow uidaho.edu access into our news server. I
too think this a only a partial solution as the setup of the news server
is a pain if you have to change it just to get a few news groups. If we
were fully webified, then we could work-around with the netscape news
reader, but that's not really an option given the low level terminal
server accounts.
We could certainly feed our local news to other sites such as
moscow.com but that still doesn't get around the fundamental
weaknesses that 1) not everyone has access to a newsreader, and
2) not everyone has access to the news servers here (UI and
moscow.com).
> ...
> Time for the U's to open up to PPP access I think that would move things
> forward in great steps.
Our university does provide SLIP/PPP access but only for faculty,
students, and staff. (We wouldn't want to take business away from
First Step!)
I guess I'd opt for the opening of access for the people rather than
attempting to restrict access because of competitive concerns. I'd encourage
you to discuss opening full SLIP/PPP up to all your affiliates rather
than to hold back the hands of progress. Just think how much web stuff
these poor folks are missing.....
I once thought that newsgroups would be the death of listservs. But
just the opposite has happened. Listservs continue to be popular
for a number of reasons, mostly convenience and the fact that they
cater to the lowest common denominator.
I agree with you, listservers perform a different function. Maybe
digesting the stuff would be a thing to look at?
I'll drop the issue for now. We'll look at a better way to get things
hooked together off-line. I think vision2020 is a great idea and would
like to make it so its open to all (as it is now via listserver) and
to try as much as possible to provide an integrated solution as well.
johnt