Re: MindSpring joins other ISPs in filtering HTML posts

[ Article reposted from alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent ]
[ Author was K. <gfo...@hfn.arg.rot13> ]
[ Posted on Sun, 26 Apr 1998 21:30:50 -0700 ]

On 26 April 98, cho...@yahoo.com uttered words quite like these:
>
<...>
>Since I'm new to this particular ng I'm not sure if anyone has
>suggested a new usenet hierarchy, with hypertext allowed.
<...>
>we already have rec, alt, sci, soc, etc...
>why not  html? (I have no such hierarchy on my server anyway)

You might want to keep an eye on discussions in the news.* groups, to 
watch any developments of such a suggestion. As far as I know, no formal
proposal on this has yet come up. However, I've seen this kind of idea
brought up a number of times. 

The possibility seems to make sense. Either as a main first-level binary 
hierarchy or possibly as an alt.* subhierarchy.

That said, I read with interest the story of ATT Worldnet's recent creation
of an html newsgroup within its internal hierarchy. I thought I'd read a 
similar story as well with IBM.net internal groups, but maybe my memory is
muddled. Anyway, here are excerpts from a couple of posts on the ATT story 
(made to a mindpring.* group about a week ago):

------------------------------------------------------------------------
:    Subject: Re: New binary filter on Mindspring groups - new ISP time.
:    From: Jeffery J. Leader  
[...]
:    For now at the least I say drop HTML, or do what WorldNet did on its
:    internal worldnet.* groups...create a .non-text version of a popular
:    group for HTML and similar postings.
:    
:    In no time it was a ghosttown.  But I say it would be fine to creat a
:    html.* hierarchy for HTML posters.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
:    Subject: Re: New binary filter on Mindspring groups - new ISP time.
:    From: Barry Jones
[...]
:    We had an interesting experience over at ATT over this. We had some
:    really insistent customers of the variety "Who the hell are you to
:    tell me what I can or cannot post!" So Ed K wisely created a
:    members.non-text group, and the HTMLers went there. I noticed two
:    things. First of all, the posts quickly became very large, full of
:    graphics, animations, etc. Second, the group died down when they
:    realized the action was in the text (the message) not the dressing
:    (the medium).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Since many ISP's are carrying binaries, 
>bandwidth and storage issues are weighed against what their customer's
>are claiming as wanted services.
>
>html hierarchies (ie. html.music.coltrane) could give people their
>cake and eat it too.

This reminds me. I was just reading recently about the W3 consortium
agreeing on a standard for the mark-up language to present mathematics
on the web. They're looking at something called MathML (mathematical
markup language). Right now, mathematicians have to use big clumsy
screenshots saved as .gifs etc to present mathematical material such as
formulas. Or struggle to represent what they can in ASCII. With MathML, 
a standard on the web is now in sight. Yet mathematicians will remain 
quite limited in communication with each other in the Usenet medium. 
In something like an html hierarchy, however, this barrier would be 
overcome.

>ISP's could filter hypertext from non html groups the way binaries are
>filtered from non binary groups. (cross post included)
>
>People who don't have unlimited access from a local POP like I do can
>avoid these groups like the plague.
>
>This isn't the perfect solution by any means. Just an idea, others are
>welcome.

I think we agree. Native usenet is straight text. Anything else should be 
in a well-defined hierarchy. If we need more hierarchies for those ISPs
who wish to carry them, yes, they should be created. And no cross-overs:
I hope more ISP's follow suit and discard misplaced html onto the cutting 
room floor...

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