Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!mccall!tp From: tp@mccall.com Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Imminent death of UUCP Zone predicted Message-ID: <3143.26a2edd9@mccall.com> Date: 17 Jul 90 10:52:08 GMT References: <1990Jul10.133026.18326@terminator.cc.umich.edu> <1990Jul11.204251.6990@chinet.chi.il.us> <1990Jul16.202721.271@chinet.chi.il.us> Organization: The McCall Pattern Co., Manhattan, KS, USA Lines: 59 In article <1990Jul16.202721.271@chinet.chi.il.us>, les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes: > In article fitz@wang.com (Tom Fitzgerald) writes: >>les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes: >>> Always saying user@domain is not a solution >>> if you assume that the intermediate uucp hops run out-of-the-box AT&T >>> rmail. ... >>This is optimizing for broken sites at the expense of working sites. We've >>had several RFCs and gigabytes of text in this newsgroup saying what UUCP >>sites should be doing, and lots of us are doing the right thing (I think). > Should we storm AT&T and burn the source to rmail or just quietly go > on in the belief that everyone using it is doing the wrong thing and > should be punished by shunning them? Perhaps we can help the unfortunate users stuck with these machines improve their software? After all, broken machines are only a problem when they are not end-nodes (I'll support that assertion below). MANY of the broken machines are end-nodes. Some few are not, and are a problem. Has anyone told them they are a problem? Has anyone simply refused a link to a broken machine that is not and end-node? When you get a new link and uucp the news software down to them, send them smail too, and tell them to get registered. Also tell them that if they don't get registered, they must remain an end node, or you will drop your link with them. I'll get flamed for that, but I think it is a reasonable condition. I can give links to whoever I want, and I am doing them a favor. I feel I'm justified in putting conditions on my favors, and I feel that that particular condition is reasonable, since it is not too tough to get registered. Implicit in the requirement is my help (as someone who has done it) to get registered. As to the assertion above that only broken nodes that are not end-nodes are a problem, my reasoning is as follows: 1) If an end-node with dumb mail software doesn't know how to send mail to a particular address, that's his problem, and nobody else's. 2) If an end-node with dumb mail software generates bad addresses that people can't reply to, that's also his problem, he won't get his mail. 3) If a node is not an end-node and is broken, then he will screw up someone's mail other than his own, and that is a problem. In other words, I fully support anyone's right to cause himself problems, but I won't be a party to helping him (by supporting a link to him) cause problems for others. I urge any registered site out there who connects to an unregistered site to help that person get registered, and lean on him to do it. (Donning asbestos suit now...) -- Terry Poot The McCall Pattern Company (uucp: ...!rutgers!ksuvax1!mccall!tp) 615 McCall Road (800)255-2762, in KS (913)776-4041 Manhattan, KS 66502, USA