NNTP BOF misnamed

[Tom Limoncelli]

Some random thoughts on the NNTP BOF.  [NOTE:  Feel perfectly free to
ignore this article.  I'm not able to make Usenix this year; so I
shouldn't talk :-) ]

[David Letterman-style "Ah, I remember...." screen gets wavy,
eventually focuses on me at the USENIX January '90 NNTP BOF.]

I stumbled into a NNTP BOF once.  At the time drew.edu ("my" site) was
small and we didn't need or use NNTP.  Of course, if that damn NSF
grant ever came through :-) we'd need to have someone that understood NNTP
so I walked in.

Everyone was there.

Lots of good information was there.

Lots of good information that was not just for NNTP managers was there.
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I was *quite* upset that this had been advertised as "NNTP (and in
little or non-existent letters "and Usenet") Managers BOF".  Later I
met a couple people that had skipped the BOF because they thought it
would be NNTP-only, not for all Usenet admins.  I was glad I had
attended "by chance".

Could we *possibly* change the name to "Usenet Site Admin BOF" or
split it into 2 BOF's "News Transport Issues BOF" and "News Admins
Talking About Recent Issues BOF"?

Just some thoughts.
Tom
P.S.  The time I was able to attend, I got wind of a mailing list that
I now call one of the "best kept secrets of Usenet".  Subscribe at
nntp-managers-request at ucbvax.berkeley.edu (if that's wrong, I guess
Eric will correct me), they often have conversations there that
include a lot of the dirt that's good to know if you are a News
Manager using *any* protocol.  It has a good signal/noise ratio, which
may not last if I announce it like this, but it was announced at the
NNTP BOF as "essential" (footnote: I believe that word should be
credited to Eric Fair).
-- 
Tom Limoncelli  tlimonce at drew.edu  tlimonce at drew.bitnet  201-408-5389
                 "People in tight pants, moving fast."