Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!gummo!whuxlb!floyd!vax135!ariel!hou5f!hou5g!hou5h!eagle!mhuxi!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!trsvax!gordon From: gordon@trsvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Re: Flame --> Orphaned Responses - (nf) Message-ID: <2845@uiucdcs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 15-Sep-83 23:24:44 EDT Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2845 Posted: Thu Sep 15 23:24:44 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 17-Sep-83 20:20:58 EDT Lines: 48 #R:spanky:-47700:trsvax:55300013:000:2179 trsvax!gordon Sep 12 17:54:00 1983 !!!! In reference to spanky!ka's claim that notesfiles users insist on posting responses to notes when the base note has not arrived yet, generating "Orphaned Response" titles: Of course we do it. It's easy. All the user has to do to post the FIRST reply to a note that hasn't arrived yet is to read the note THAT HASN'T ARRIVED YET, and then type 'w' to reply to it. News users who read news articles that haven't arrived yet and then use the 'f' command to do the same thing will find the title is listed as a random lightbulb joke. This feature isn't very well known, however, since most systems don't have precognition compiled into their news/notes programs. The real reasons that "Orphaned Responses" show up are: 1. Somebody typed in the title "Orphaned Response" just to annoy people. 2. UUCP dumped the original base note into the bit bucket. The next time notes are transmitted, notes thinks the site already has the base note and just sends responses to it, if any. 3. The system in question originally had the base note, but it got deleted after some time (typically 2 weeks) passed since the note last got a response to it. Most systems can keep only a limited amount of news/notes and have to expire it. Once the flood of flames about a particular article quiets down, and the article gets deleted, there is bound to be someone on another system who is just catching up on his notes-reading, and replies to it. This becomes an orphaned response when it gets to any system that has already deleted the article. Some articles continue to generate flaming responses for months. A brief letup (for 2 weeks straight) will create an orphaned response, sometimes with a dozen replies all attached to the same (nonexistent) base note. I suspect that if anyone really investigated it, they would find that #3 is the major cause of orphaned responses and flames. Gordon Burditt ...!{ctvax,microsoft,laidbak}!trsvax!sneaky!gordon P.S. Could someone please post the end-of-the-year NY Stock Exchange closing prices at the end of the year? That way, I can read the response today, before it arrives, and make a fortune.