flames are on!

[Scott Turner]

In article <1948 at turnkey.TCC.COM> sandy at turnkey.TCC.COM (Sanford 'Sandy' Zelkovitz) writes:
[ Sandy proves he can think/post calmly ]

>If users of my BBS would read the bulletins that are available and NOT go
>immediately to the file section, they would know why and how to get the larger

Alas I have logged into so many bbs systems that I've tired of reading
bulletins. Most are full of "This is a bbs, it has many features, like
electronic mail... (do you know what electronic mail is?)" I'm not going to
put them down, but I'm not about to pay to read 'em. I've always yearned for
a BBS with a bulletin "Quick tour for BBS veterans".

>You have gone in length describing the cost calling the system. You did forget,
>however, that my system is available through PC Pursuit. Unlike uunet, I do
>not charge for usage! Also, unlike uunet, I have to restrict time (only through

Yes, I did forget about PC Pursuit. But I can't image trying to get through
to your bbs via PC Pursuit. It's tough enough via Ma Bell. (Probably mostly
due to assholes like me downloading X10R4 I will admit :)

>you neglected to describe how much you would have to pay uunet for the connect
>time.

OK, I get 1.8Mb per hour out of uunet at around 04:00 (calling at other times
reduces throughput most of the time).

That comes out to 12.16 hours @ $9 an hour (with NO federal/state taxes, unlike
using MaBell) that comes to: $109.45.

Less than what the good people at the University of Washington charge for a
tape.

And that 1.8Mb per hour figure is piss poor for a Telebit trailblazer+. It
should be delivering 5.4Mb per hour (that's 4.05 hours and $36) but alas I've
never seen this level of performance talking to uunet (other sites have
delivered quite nicely though.) So your mileage may vary about how much
you'd pay uunet to download TeX.

>and one old Hayes 1200. You also went into length about the speed of uucp
>transfers. Well, I am running HDB uucp with a master selected protocol. Since
>you select the protocol, as the master when you call in, I can't run any
>faster!

My rule of thumb is 350,000 bytes per hour at 1200 baud and 750,000 bytes per
hour at 2400 baud. Your system was performing quite nicely.

>If I sound redundant, I am sorry; however, the 500K limit, through the BBS,
>is more than generous. If you call other bbs systems, you will find
>much lower limits. You didn't like the extra 200K uploads as my example, I

Actually I have found that most systems that make splashy postings on the net
proclaiming themselves as a source for something don't have daily Kb download
limits. They may have time limits so everyone can get a shot, or have their
uucp hangup after each file transfered (again to give everyone a shot), but
I haven't run into another one with Kb limits.

To each his own.

>If I get upset when I read such inflamatory remarks about my efforts to
>help others, I am sure you can understand. Believe me, I am reaching the
>end of the rope. I have been thinking about two possible alternatives:
>
>1) Just turn the !@#$#%^% system off!
>2) Start charging for usage!

If option 2 includes adding a Trailblazer+ and 5.4Mb per hour download speeds,
HEY I'm all for it! uunet just isn't delivering the bang for the bux for l5comp.

Thankfully this flame battle has had a bright side for myself at least. I have
been far too complacent about uunet, time to raise some hell instead of just
quietly sending them another check. (They love bitching at me about the rate
at which they get checks, but haven't responded to my bitching about the
rate at which they send me bytes.)

Scott Turner
scotty at l5comp -or- uunet!l5comp!scotty