Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!think!nike!oliveb!epimass!jbuck From: jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: cross-posting restrictions Message-ID: <401@epimass.UUCP> Date: Mon, 18-Aug-86 17:46:12 EDT Article-I.D.: epimass.401 Posted: Mon Aug 18 17:46:12 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 19-Aug-86 22:25:04 EDT References: <1986Aug15.033141.4997@utcs.uucp> <1919@dciem.UUCP> Reply-To: jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck) Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA Lines: 36 Summary: Let's discuss this before making a major change In article <1919@dciem.UUCP> msb@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) writes: >Geoff Collyer (geoff@utcs.UUCP) writes in ont.general: >> utcs is running C news, which has implemented some of the policy in B >> 2.11 news. One notable feature is that, in order to prevent >> cross-postings such as (in the brave new world) "comp.unix.wizards, >> rec.auto" ... B 2.11 and C news insist that all newsgroups in the >> Newsgroups: line must be in the same "newsgroup class" (i.e. must all >> start with the same word). This means that cross-postings such as >> ont.general,tor.general will be quietly dropped ... > >This is a FEATURE? I can see that a site which receives only comp, >or only rec (!), might want to reject such an article, but why on >earth should a site that receives both comp and rec want to reject it? This is a very bad feature; it prevents people from doing many things that are quite legitimate. The boundary between "comp" and "sci", for example, is not hard: I can think of many legitimate topics where a cross-posting between sci.math and comp. is appropriate. One result will be an increase in net traffic, since the same article will in some cases be posted twice, instead of cross-posted, to achieve the same effect. It also would prevent someone from cross-posting to a general local list (say ba.general) and a more limited net-wide list. Some articles will receive too wide a distribution as well, since some sites belong to two local distributions where neither one is a subset of the other. It's actually quite radical in that is removes any connection between the various distributions; "comp" and "sci" will become completely separate entities. -- - Joe Buck {ihnp4!pesnta,oliveb,nsc!csi}!epimass!jbuck Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, California