Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Info on shuttle mission results and other NASA news
Message-ID: <3404@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 19-Nov-85 15:45:30 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.3404
Posted: Tue Nov 19 15:45:30 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Nov-85 21:39:51 EST
References: <8511142053.AA01916@s1-b.arpa> <1256@ames.UUCP> <39@mit-amt.MIT.EDU>
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 49
Summary: The ARPA <> USENET issue again

In article <39@mit-amt.MIT.EDU> jrd@mit-amt.MIT.EDU (Jim Davis) writes:
>In a previous message Will Martin asked that STS info be posted
>here.  There is already a group dedicated to the Shuttle, it is called
>net.columbia.  STS info should go there.  Duplication of subject
>area should be avoided.

Heavy sigh... We see here again a lack of realization of what is going
on in the Internet environment and with newsgroup/mailing-list gateways.

I'm lucky -- I can see net.space and net.columbia at a host where I have
limited USENET access; I get the ARPA SPACE Digest at my regular "home"
host, mailed to me on the MILNET. Few other people can see this stuff
from both viewpoints, however, and it can come and go away for me, too.

When I posted that (to which Eugene Miya has written an excellent
response explaining why it is unlikely that it will happen), I referred
explicitly and specifically to the SPACE Digest on the ARPA side. (For
me, it is much more reliable and long-term available than USENET access.)

The SPACE Digest has a gateway between it and USENET's net.space
newsgroup. This recently was put back into operation after being down
for a while. There is NOT a gateway between it and net.columbia (the
USENET's space-shuttle newsgroup). So, to the ARPA side, which is where
I addressed that query, net.columbia might as well not exist, and stuff
posted to it is never seen. For maximum exposure, and for distribution
to the ENTIRE community, information like I was requesting (reviews of
the results of missions, reports on satellites and projects, anything
and everything we could get out of NASA) MUST be posted to net.space or
sent to the SPACE Digest. It will do no good for the ARPA side to put it
on net.columbia.

It would be nice to get a one-way gateway feeding net.columbia into the
SPACE Digest, but this probably would result in the postings eventually
migrating over to net.space, since the software would feed them back
through the two-way SPACE Digest <> net.space gateway as new items. In
practical terms it means that an ARPA Digest or mailing list can have a
single gateway to a USENET newsgroup, and we will have to live within
this constraint.

To those of you on USENET, pay attention to the header fields when
responding to or evaluating a posting you see in net.space (or any other
gatewayed newsgroup). If it comes from an ARPA site, and especially if
it refers to a "Digest" as the medium, DON'T evaluate it like it was
a posting from a USENET site and refer the poster to "more appropriate"
newsgroups, which do not exist in that poster's environment.

Will Martin

UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin   or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA