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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!gatech!nsc!chuqui
From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Improper use of Expires:
Message-ID: <2882@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Jun-85 18:20:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: nsc.2882
Posted: Fri Jun 21 18:20:03 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Jun-85 04:24:01 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Plaidhenge
Lines: 39

I've just gone through and cleaned out my system again, and it brought to
the forefront another bad habit/trend I'm starting to see on the network, 
the random and inappropriate use of the Expires: header line. I just
removed a message in net.sport.hoops that was a status report on the NBA
finals. So far, so good. It had, unfortunately, an Expires line in it to
July 1, which meant that it was going to stick around significantly longer
than the rest of the news. 

If this were an isolated case, I wouldn't worry about it. Unfortunately,
I've had to clean out about 10 of these in various groups over the last
month or so -- things that stuck around long after the rest of the articles
I got at the same time have gone to netnews heaven. I can handle it by
changing expire, of course, but that also would affect things like
net.announce.newusers that ought to stick around, and that have good
Expires: dates. 

This seems to be another case of netnews protocol breakdown. As a system
administrator, I set a specific age limit to articles on my site. Unless
you have a very good reason to override that limit, you shouldn't. If
enough people decide to ignore this, it will cause me to use up more disk
space than I have allocated for news around here, and the older articles I
don't want could cause me to get rid of newer articles I do want. Before I
let that happen, I'll just start ignoring the Expires: line, but that
causes the opposite problem. I don't keep articles I do want because I have
to get rid of things I don't want. Unless, of course, I decide to hand
prune, which takes up my most critical resource -- time.

If you ignore the protocol, it becomes a no win situation. Expires: lines
should NOT be used unless there is a very good reason. If you aren't sure
the reason is good enough that EVERY person on the network will agree with
you, don't use it. Simple? I thought so... Then why aren't people doing it?

your mother.
-- 
:From the misfiring synapses of:                  Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui   nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

The offices were very nice, and the clients were only raping the land, and
then, of course, there was the money...