Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sparky!dsndata!wayne From: wayne@dsndata.uucp (Wayne Schlitt) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: Ideas for Message-ID's Message-ID: Date: 17 Apr 91 23:53:03 GMT References: <3427@litchi.bbn.com> <3434@litchi.bbn.com> <1991Apr16.174706.4963@nic.funet.fi> <1991Apr17.212354.12236@zoo.toronto.edu> Sender: wayne@dsndata.UUCP Organization: Design Data Lines: 40 In-reply-to: henry@zoo.toronto.edu's message of 17 Apr 91 21:23:54 GMT In article <1991Apr17.212354.12236@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > In article <1991Apr16.174706.4963@nic.funet.fi> hks@funet.fi writes: > >Would it be possible to have after the time a checksum calculated over > >the most of the message? The checksum calculation should could include at > >least the newsgroup name and subject if not everything. It's unlikely > >that even an automatic program sends within one second two messages > >with same subject to same newsgroup... > > I'm not sure what your objective is here. What this is essentially > doing is adding a random number to the message ID. Using the process ID > accomplishes the same thing, with random numbers that are *guaranteed > unique* over the whole system, making collisions essentially impossible. while looking through a long list of message id's, i came across one message id format that i kind of like. they used . i hadnt really thought about it, but having the login name instead of the process id has a real advantage in that you will often have a valid email address to the person who posted the article. granted, using the login name has the same problem as a process id, in that the same user can generate more than one article per second, but it isnt any worse than the process id either. the login name may also be a little bit longer on average than the process id, but probably not by that much. you would also end up with lots of articles coming from user names of "gateway", or "news", but even that is no _worse_ than the process id. getting the users name in a protable way may be a problem, i am not sure... anyway, just think of the fun hacks you could add to expire to kill things from known net idiots quicker, and leave articles from doug gwyn, chris torek and (of course) henry spencer around longer. just a thought... -wayne