Path: utzoo!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ziploc!eps
From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Just how useful is crossposting?
Summary: damn useful
Message-ID: <129@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 17 Nov 89 19:53:12 GMT
References: <47326@looking.on.ca> <838@ccssrv.UUCP> <1989Nov17.173753.9790@brutus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Organization: San Francisco State University
Lines: 29

In article <1989Nov17.173753.9790@brutus.cs.uiuc.edu>
	coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>Crosspostings are a feature, not a bug.

I agree with John on this one, and for other reasons.  We use
netnews software to handle non-usenet hierarchies.  Oh my!
I have nothing against policy-making, but breaking one hand
doesn't make the other feel better.

It's amazing what a few well-written reminders in postnews/Pnews
will accomplish when it comes to engendering responsible behavior.
Treating the "seven sisters" specially is ok by me, so long as
private subnetworks can be run the way their administration deems
appropriate.

-------

IMHO: Crossposting is "less of a problem" than having Folloup-To:
different from Newsgroups:--I may find myself in the middle of a
discussion and there's no way in My Favorite Newsreader(tm) to
follow References: if the message IDs came from another
newsgroup.  What's needed is a way to retrieve the history record
for a given Message-ID (which may not be all that helpful if the
referenced article has expired, or came from a foreign
distribution, but is more than I have now).  MFN(tm) may or may
not be using NNTP, and shouldn't really have any knowledge of how
history information is actually stored.

					-=EPS=-