Time for 8 bit news, isn't it? - Haven't got the slightest

[Steve Simmons]

In article <1990Jul21.174535.8281 at lokkur.dexter.mi.us>
scs at lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons) (me at home) writes:
>Hey, news is ASCII-based, written in english-speaking countries for
>english-speaking readers.

p576spz at mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (S.Petra Zeidler) writes:
>Hey back,
>I don't think so at all; if I read the authors' names and origins, it seems to
>me that no mean part of postings to the world-wide newsgroups is NOT written
>in English-spoken countries. 
>It is the US American "We Are The World, all the others are just the miserable
>exotic rest" attitude all over again.
>Believe me, there is a world, and yes, even netting outside of the US
>(ever heard of eunet for example ?).

You missed my point.  News was written by a couple of guys from Duke
and some other university so they could exchange stuff, and grew from
there.  If you want to assume using ASCII and English between those two
sites was deliberate ethnocentricism, go right ahead.

Whingeing and moaning about the failure of free software developed by
english speakers using American standards for their own use to meet
the regional needs of non-English speaking populations is not productive.

I support the idea of removing the ANSI/ASCII/ISO character set restrictions
from a news-like system, and look with interest towards the day it gets
here.  I don't support the idea that adding one bit to the character set
will solve the problems, and reiterate the statement that without some
degree of backwards compatibility (gatewaying, whathaveyou) it will not
succeed for a long time.