Xref: utzoo news.admin:14423 news.software.b:7794 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.b Subject: Re: Really funny jokes being missed Message-ID: <1991May18.122602.12184@mp.cs.niu.edu> Date: 18 May 91 12:26:02 GMT References: <1991May16.151523.28123@zoo.toronto.edu> Organization: Northern Illinois University Lines: 34 In article mathew@mantis.co.uk (CNEWS MUST DIE!) writes: >It loses articles unnecessarily, without reporting its delivery failure to >the originator. > >I call that broken. I don't. Good work, Henry and Geoff, in improving quality. >If sendmail did that, you'd call it broken, wouldn't you? I certainly would. There is, however, an enormous difference between email and news. In principle, email is person to person communication. Getting the message through is therefore the principle. Adherence to exact standards is not as important (as long as this does not cause system problems), as getting the message to its destination. Sender and recipient can have their own private arguments about standards. (No debates about this here, please. This is a forum on news software). News, on the other hand, is public, not private. It is in some sense, a form of publication. Any failure to observe standards is an imposition on the general public, so the publisher (in this case the news software, under supervision of the administrator), has a higher obligation to maintain accepted standards. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115 +1-815-753-6940