Charles> What I would like to suggest is that someone set up a
Charles> special news server just for FAQ distribution purposes.
Charles> This server could probably run on a 486, since it would just
Charles> carry the *.answers groups and perhaps the news.* groups.
I'm not sure I see the point, unless MIT's feed is particularly bad
(in which case arranging additional feeds should be straightforward).
How well-connected *is* the MIT server?
Charles> The server would firstly set up a bi-directional feed with
Charles> MIT, and then arrange two way feeds with some "key sites" in
Charles> the distribution of news.
[...]
Charles> The list can be based on the sites that show up frequently
Charles> in the path lines of existing usenet postings. (years ago
Charles> when the net was young, I remember someone at DEC actually
Charles> used to keep track of the most popular relay sites, and news
Charles> admins would try to get a high ranking as a matter of pride)
FWIW, this list is still maintained, and can be found at
http://www.freenix.fr/top1000 (and there's also a US mirror somewhere).
It is rather depressing that the virtual site "cyberspam" (used as a tag
for spam-cancels) is currently ranked #4.
-- Andrew.