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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!ihnp4!houxm!hocda!machaids!ekb
From: ekb@machaids.UUCP (Eric Bustad)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: A good human-factored user interface for postnews
Message-ID: <641@machaids.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Oct-83 17:51:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: machaids.641
Posted: Sun Oct 23 17:51:38 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Oct-83 01:23:43 EDT
References: <464@cbosgd.UUCP> <572@houxm.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel
Lines: 19

I'm replying to Mel Haas' reply: the original never made it this far.

I thought that the purpose of the "Distribution" field was quite clear.
It is to allow one to post an article to a net-wide newsgroup while
restricting it to the local area.  There would not usually be enough
need to justify creating a local newsgroup.  For example, I might want
to post an article to net.sf-lovers to announce that WBGO (88.3FM) is
going to rebroadcast "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".  This is
a one-shot announcement of local interest only and I would get fried
if I let it be sent all over the country.  So I set the distribution
to "nj,ny".

I think the whole idea of "Distribution" makes a lot of sense.  It
isn't as robust as the use of "Newsgroup", since there are still
systems which don't recognize it, but it makes sense to me to separate
the specification of interest area from that of distribution.
-- 
= Eric Bustad (BTL-HO)
  ihnp4!machaids!ekb