Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!lost.rice.edu!cathyf
From: cathyf@lost.rice.edu (Catherine Anne Foulston)
Subject: Re: C-news rejects articles due to bad headers.
Message-ID: <1991May9.220348.2906@rice.edu>
Sender: news@rice.edu (News)
Organization: Rice University
References: <1991May3.173007.21900@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1991May3.185024.26725@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 22:03:48 GMT

In article <1991May3.185024.26725@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

>It seems apparent that problems are occurring mostly with empty headers,
>or headers which were probably edited by humans.

Or both at the same time.  I was deleting a stupid Distribution: the other
day, and I use vi.  How easy it is to put the cursor one character to the
right of the colon and press C, producing an article which C News (if I
understand correctly) will reject.  I remembered in time, but who would if
they didn't read this group?

Don't get me wrong, I agree that bogus headers should be bounced (if I had
tons of free time I'd make mods to bounce the Distribution I was trying
to fix -- I think it was "rec.sport.football.pro,news.admin,local") and 
that it's the responsibility of posting software to fix or block such
articles.  I'm not sure I believe that a space after the colon should be
required in an otherwise empty header, though.  If that's what the RFC
says, well then I guess I disagree with the RFC. :-)  Though I'm not a
fan of implementing "improvements" to an RFC since generally all they do
is produce incompatibility.

	Cathy
--
Cathy Foulston + cathyf@rice.edu + Rice University, Network & Systems Support