Xref: utzoo alt.sources.d:376 news.admin:7966 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!bfmny0!tneff From: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) Newsgroups: alt.sources.d,news.admin Subject: Re: Stupid reposting service (was Re: SLIP/getty/printers on Terminal Servers) Message-ID: <14998@bfmny0.UU.NET> Date: 13 Dec 89 22:29:20 GMT References: <10282@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> <5343@omepd.UUCP> Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) Followup-To: alt.sources.d Lines: 22 It's true that if a large source posting appears in newsgroup X which isn't fed to your site, then merely *pointing* to it in alt.sources doesn't help a great deal if you decide you actually want that source. But that's an acceptable risk. If you don't get a feed for newsgroup X in the first place, it's reasonable to suppose you're not interested in its contents -- including large source postings that might appear there. So forcibly reproducing them en masse in alt.sources is more likely to be an annoyance than a help. In short, if you can't follow a pointer, you probably don't want to. In principle you are as likely to be uninterested in short sources from unwanted newsgroups as you are long sources; but because the net expense and annoyance from gratuitous short source postings is smaller, this too is an acceptable risk. The problem with all those headers is they (plus the existing required headers) frequently rival the actual source code in size! Too much overhead. Alt.sources should be informal. -- "Nature loves a vacuum. Digital \O@/ Tom Neff doesn't." -- DEC sales letter /@O\ tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET