In article <1994Apr27.111359.24911@miavx1>, [log in to unmask]
(Tom Hinson) wrote:
> Hi.  I find the movie reviews in the newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews
> to be quite helpful, but I have one complaint.  The newsgroup is
> refreshed too frequently.
>
> Today, for example, only four posts (reviews) are listed.  Seldom does
> a review post appear at the same time the film is being shown locally.
> The newsgroup would be more useful if it kept all the posts from the
> latest couple of months.
>
> Can this be done locally?
 
Yes, length of retention is a local decision, dictated largely by available
disk space on the Oxford OpenVMS system.  Currently, news items are retained
according to the following approximate formula:
 
     Newsgroup hierarchy                           Standard retention
 
     alt.*                                           2 days
     bit.*                                           3 days
     info.*                                          7 days
     k12.*                                           7 days
     mu.* (specific to Miami University)           180 days
     rec.*                                           3 days
     relcom.*                                        7 days
     sci.*                                           3 days
     soc.*                                           3 days
     talk.*                                          3 days
     usa.*                                           7 days
     vmsnet.*                                        7 days
 
Under this formula, NetNews currently occupies 1.2GB of the 2.0GB available
to it on the Alpha.
 
While increasing length of retention across the board for a particular
NetNews hierarchy has siginificant disk space implications, MCIS can increase
individual newsgroups in response to specific user requests.  Such requests
must necessarily be considered on a case-by-case basis, considering the
volume of traffic on the particular newsgroup and the impact increasing
retention will have on overall disk space.  All such requests should be
posted to mu.newgroups or e-mailed to [log in to unmask]
 
Meanwhile, retention of rec.arts.movies.reviews has been increased from 3 days
to 30 days.
 
--
 
                          John B Harlan
         Campus Wide Information System (CWIS) Coordinator
                    Miami University (Ohio USA)
                    [log in to unmask]