Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!hsdndev!cmcl2!panix!alexis
From: alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Am _I_ breaking the new Cnews rules???
Message-ID: <1991Jun19.062825.13193@panix.uucp>
Date: 19 Jun 91 06:28:25 GMT
Organization: PANIX - Public Access Unix Systems of NY
Lines: 45

I've been following the notification debate carefully since it began. While
I think Mathew is dead wrong, I'm starting to wonder if I'm not in the same
position he was, and just wondering that makes me a little more sympathetic...

In particular, I noticed that my date header contains a comma. It is generated
by a Cnews which was up-to-date _until_ the latest "totalitarian" patches
came out (I will be upgrading shortly- the only reason I didn't is because we
have some local mail-to-news gates which might not be 100% kosher). Actually,
I should say it's generated by the inews of that Cnews.

Anyway, is this posting being seen? I'd be very happy if someone who is
definitely running the latest Cnews would send me an answer. I know this may
strain my mailbox a little, but I can deal with that. What I can't deal with
is not knowing until I finish the Cnews upgrade.


BTW, that said, and assuming that my articles are OK, why have my two postings
on the error-notification problem gone unanswered? Right or wrong, smart or
stupid, I'd have expected at least some reply...

To recap (briefly), my second, ultra-low-tech solution, is to simply collect
a log of sites that generate bad messages. Every month or so, extract a list
of offending sites, and send them each _one_ mail message. (You could get
more selective; only send mail to sites with more than 3 bad messages, etc.)

Big benefits:
1) This doesn't have to change one line of code in Cnews.
2) ... and therefore, it can be distributed apart from Cnews. If it is, not
   that many people will run it, thus cutting down on the problem of mail
   flooding.
3) It's incredibly simple to do. Mix one part awk, one part sort, one part
   uniq, and one part cron, and microwave for thirty seconds.
4) Because of the increasing number of sites running Cnews, it's becoming
   more and more likely that bad headers you see come from nearby sites. So
   most (all) notification is to fairly local machines. This cuts down on the
   number of duplicate notifications, as far as I can guess to the point where
   they're simply not a problem any more.

What do you think? (Can you even hear me??)

---
Alexis Rosen
Owner/Sysadmin, PANIX Public Access Unix, NY
alexis@panix.com
{cmcl2,apple}!panix!alexis