Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!decwrl!sgi!vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com From: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Who pays the bill? Message-ID: <66099@sgi.sgi.com> Date: 4 Aug 90 02:30:18 GMT References: <26A738A8.725B@tct.uucp> Sender: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA Lines: 52 In article , lear@turbo.bio.net (Eliot) writes: > > There are an absurdly large number of sites that use the news reply > path, and for me to bang on each one of them would be a waste of my > time. Much easier is it to just reroute their mail. By rerouting and by advertising links you do not let others use in circumstances that are not easily predicted, you are inconveniencing more than just those who insist on using Path: return addresses. Why "bang on" everyone? Why not hurt only those who use Path: to abuse your links? You could zap the Path: abusers by hacking your inews to stick a clinker like "somewhere!" in Path:'s as articles are relayed by your system. That would harm exactly those you say you want to "bang," and not the rest of the universe. It would take far less time than maintaining what sounds like an interesting set of heuristics. You could even take the existence of "!somewhere" in an path as permission to re-route. You would have an automatically generated "loose source route" flag. (Again, "somewhere" is a favorite dropping of rmail. Any real machine named "somewhere" and all of its neighbors will be in lots of trouble.) Is there any chance that the fact rerouting is an interesting technical challenge has convinced you that it is also acceptible in polite society? I know that is part of the temptation I wrestle with each time I see a bounce with a 200 character route. (I am helped by having spent years in grad. school learning that most technically interesting things are emphatically unacceptible in polite society.) What would you do with this route? ...!bionet!oracle!decwrl!sgi!apple!user Will you miss-reroute that one to user@apple.com? An article arriving for apple!user at sgi.sgi.com will be assumed to be for user@apple.sgi.com. If you think that is wrong, then I appologize. There are people in this vicinity that would complain if apple!user meant user@apple.com. Again, I did not choose the fruit name. Feel free to call me an idiot for still having not knowing which paths you will or will not destroy. I can guess what you mean by "neighbor checking," but even if I guess right, I have no confidence you will not find good reason to change your rules. I think there are many like me (tho that's what all idiots say). Vernon Schryver vjs@sgi.com