Xref: utzoo news.admin:14679 news.software.b:7973
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!ibmpcug!mantis!mathew
From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (CNEWS MUST DIE!)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.b
Subject: Re: Really funny jokes being missed
Message-ID: <qZwL326w164w@mantis.co.uk>
Date: 27 May 91 13:07:49 GMT
References: <283E8081.4669@tct.com>
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.
Lines: 19

chip@tct.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
> You don't realize the importance of the Date header.  Older C News
> versions did as you suggest.  As a result, they were vulnerable to the
> loads of old news which get dumped on the net periodically due to
> admin inexperience and mistakes.  C News insists on a parseable Date
> so it can guarantee that the news it forwards isn't old junk.

Yes. The problem is that this "guarantee", along with the other "guarantees"
implemented by C News, has the side effect that ordinary people can have
their postings silently dropped because they made trivial typos.

Which is more valuable -- the "guarantee" that no old news will reappear, or
the "guarantee" that people's postings will get out to the net?  I'd say the
latter.


mathew