A proposal for a consistent REPOST scheme

[Chuq Von Rospach]

> There was an analysis by Chuq von Rospach about a year ago that showed that
> it was cheaper (in terms of cost to the net) to post something instead of
> mailing it if it is going to go to more than 15 or 20 people. 

Brian Dropped a zero. I played with some numbers about 6 months ago and came
up with a break-even point of about 120-200 people (what I was looking at was
when a mailing list became large enough to be cheaper to the net as a
moderated group).


Actually, reposts are quite simple. The algorithm I've used for years is:

    if (I need something)
    {
	ask the net to tell me if they have it but not to send it immediately;
	if (I get multiple replies) 
	{
	    ask the first or closest for a copy
	    thank the rest
	} else /* I get one reply */ {
	    ask for a copy
	}
	if (I get a few requests for it [<5-10])
	{
	    mail out copies
	} else {
	    repost
	}

I've never been inundated by copies that way, and the control of the
posting remains in a single source -- the original requestor. You don't
end up with 99 people posting a version of shar to the net, and everyone
is happy.

-- 
:From catacombs of Castle Tarot:        Chuq Von Rospach 
sun!chuq at decwrl.DEC.COM                 {hplabs,ihnp4,nsc,pyramid}!sun!chuq

It's not looking, it's heat seeking.