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From: werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: cross-posting restrictions
Message-ID: <1169@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Aug-86 03:17:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.1169
Posted: Tue Aug 19 03:17:30 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Aug-86 07:41:24 EDT
References: <1986Aug15.033141.4997@utcs.uucp> <1919@dciem.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 28
Summary: crossposting in newsgroups of different classes is justifiable

Recently, I wanted to post an article to both mod.something (for moderated
netwide distribution) and to local.something so local users would not have
to wait the week or so until it would actually show up in the moderated
group.   Another time, I wanted to bypass the delay of moderation by posting
to both  mod.whatever  and  net.whatever.  I was convinced that this was a
good idea, as I felt certain that those people that wouldn't have to wait the
extra time until they'd see the message would appreciate the fact;  and those
who wouldn't get to see the article in  net.whatever  because some backbone
upstream only carried  mod.whatever  would say "better late than never".

I can't say that I appreciated the cast-in-software policy that prevents
us from doing this and without a warning-message at that.   The first time
around I decided to wait for the moderated article to show up:  well, 3 weeks
later the moderator posted a message saying that he had decided (based on a
misunderstanding) not to distribute the article in the mod.group.  I'm sure
you *KNOW* what I did when I had the second case occur ...

Given that only 2 times during the last 6 months did I feel reason to cross-
post, I don't really feel it to be too great a burden having to post such
articles twice (seperately to both groups), but I *DO* object to not getting
warned about the "software block" - a warning with default "blocking" unless
some override action is taken, that would be preferable.  It would help if
there were some statistics indicating how many messages are actually blocked,
saving us the aggrevation of *HAVING* to read inappropriate articles or
duplicate messages.  I wonder if that really happens with any frequency
which would justify aggrevating the average, sensible net-user ....??!!

---Werner