I don't feel the will of the one (site) should be subjugated to the good
of the many.  I'd rather see all of the major hubs running LISTSERV and
helping with DISTRIBUTEs, but I only know of one CPU in the US dedicated
to supporting BITNET, and it's not CUNYVM's 3090.  At every site, I have
to believe that local users come first and network help comes second.
 
I think we can all point to this node or that and say, "How can they
be so selfish!"  However, that doesn't solve anything.  I understand
David's frustration at sites that don't do as much as others (heck, I'm
on the far side of two of the worst bottlenecks in the network), but
we have to remember, CPU's exist for local reasons and are subject to
local control and, yes, local politics.  Perhaps we ought to all
(double?  treble?) our fees to the network so BITNIC can be a 3090
and have everyone link to BITNIC instead of CUNYVM.  But I don't think
so; that's not what the network is about.  I say, let's leave well-enough
alone.
 
I think we're all a little guilty of "Wouldn't it be nice if..."
Some of that is good; it gives us ambitions that lead to things like
Eric's work on the LISTSERV.  But as someone else said, we have to stay
in context.  Unless you're talking about the one CPU dedicated to the
network, you have to be very conscious of local needs.  And even if you
are talking about BITNIC or any other node, you need to remember, the
guys at the site probably know as much as you about network needs and
a lot more than you about their own needs and capacities.
 
Off my soapbox,
Nick Laflamme