Xref: utzoo news.admin:15246 news.software.b:8268 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!ukma!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!abvax!iccgcc.decnet.ab.com!herrickd From: herrickd@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.b Subject: Re: Really funny jokes being missed Message-ID: <1991Jun14.084539.4864@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> Date: 14 Jun 91 13:45:38 GMT References: <1991May27.212911.13922@kithrup.COM> Lines: 31 In article , mathew@mantis.co.uk (CNEWS MUST DIE!) writes: > > Right. But the users who happen to be using the software written by the > person who didn't follow the RFC are innocent bystanders; and innocent > bystanders should not be punished. > But, Mathew, that is the way the world works. When the control systems, computerised and human, fail and two trains in the underground run into each other, it is not the author of the software or the operator in the control center who goes to the hospital. It is always the innocent bystanders who get punished. (Though the news this am suggests some of the non-innocent may get their turn in the matter of flight 103.) The people who bought and paid for Ford Escorts with poorly placed gas tanks (how many of your innocent bystanders bought and paid for their news posting software) were "innocent bystanders" the way you are using the word. Some of them had a very hot time of it. Maybe a more useful function here would be to identify the bad software. What posting software were you using, Mathew, when you were dumping non-compliant articles onto the poor unsuspecting network? How about it, folks? Program name and version number and date. What software posts bad articles. If that data becomes known to the people who are using it, they can switch to a version that works or to a different program entirely. dan herrick herrickd@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com