new name for USENET

[utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!unix-wizards]

>From cbosgd!mark at Berkeley Mon Nov  9 22:16:52 1981
The release of version B of the network news software is looming near,
and a problem has become apparent:  an amazing number of people think
that USENET and UUCP net are the same thing.  This seems to be because
USENET was originally chosen as a pun on USENIX, with the intent that
the two would somehow become affiliated.  As it has turned out, the
net does not need to be limited to UNIX machines, and has little to
do with USENIX.  With this in mind, it seems like it's time to choose
a new name for USENET.  (For those of you who don't know, USENET is a
logical net of sites running netnews, which is a network bboard.  It
seems to be used for many of the same kinds of things that arpanet
mailing lists are, and in fact many arpanet mailing lists, including
unix-wizards, are fed into USENET.  Uses include queries [does anyone
have a driver for a framus 9000?], announcements [we have a new version
of x that anyone who wants can get], flames and discussions as are typical
of digests, special interest groups (there is a vwrabbit group, for example),
and news (for example, one newsgroup posts updates on the Space Shuttle
hot off the AP newswire).

Suggestions for new names have included NEWSNET, IDNET (information
distribution), as well as humorous ones such as Lola and ARACHNET.
At Lauren's suggestion, I'd like to get some input from this list
for name suggestions, since whatever it's called will probably affect
most of you within a few months once it's released.  Please do not
respond to the unix-wizards list (unless the list really wants to see
responses) but rather directly to me as well as to csvax.netnews at berkeley,
which will be fed into the net.news newsgroup.

	Mark Horton
	mark at berkeley