On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 22:22:56 -0500, "J. Clarke"
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

The newsgroups are the same for everybody. What's different is how long
their particular server holds messages and the quality of the feed they
get from their upstream provider.

What's also different is if their server allows me to pick up news
messages. If it was amatter of tyhow lomg it held messages, then the
answer is "not at all".

I don't understand what you're trying to say here.

You said that the only difference was how long their particular server
holds messages and the quality of the feed they get from their
upstream provider. As far as I could tell, the "place where they held
their messages" was stuffed and they were not fixing it. Blunt enough?


There isn't anything to "fix".


Yes there is. I could not get news messages from one ISP's server.
Their database of news was munged. They were not going to fix it.

That seems odd.

See above. They have to store it somewhere. The storage was kaput,
munged, distorted, whatever.

Yep. Sure. I see about 100+ entries every day. But that's from the
whole world's use of that NG, and IME this is a pretty active ng. In
the context of the total trafic through my ISP it is peanuts.

However "total traffic" is a meaningless measure. One big graphic generates
more traffic than a thousand USENET posts.

_They_ said that they had less than 50 users. They have 10,000
customers. Not my words.

Which may mean that USENET is unpopular or may mean that 9951 of those
10,000 got disgusted with them and went to Newsguy or one of the other
dedicated USENET hosts, of which there are many.

no. their newsfeed had been great until it collapsed. look. you see
8000 posts in a week, you said? i dont think the wreck gets 1000 a
day, but however, those 800 posts come FROM THE WHOLE WORLD. the total
posts are a minor fraction of both traffic and number of users/hits
ACCORDING TO THE ISPs, not me!

nuff. it was their words not mine. given that they were losing my
custom because of it, and did not give a damn enough to fix it and yet
are doing very well, WTF should i argue. the number of people leaving
because of news feed was stuff all.