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From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Expiration dates -- me too!
Message-ID: <2640@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Thu, 6-Aug-87 05:21:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.2640
Posted: Thu Aug  6 05:21:06 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Aug-87 09:44:19 EDT
Expires: Thu, 5-Nov-87 21:34:52 EDT
References: <2525@hoptoad.uucp> <6957@g.ms.uky.edu> <3646@well.UUCP> <24948@sun.uucp>
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 40

I find it odd that people are suggesting that every news admin on
every system should be editing their expire scripts and making multiple
passes over their news file system to "clean up" after a few people
who want "a little more" of your disk space than the rest of the net.

It seems to me that instead, the moderators of comp.*.amiga and
otherrealms should forego the use of Expires: and instead broadcast an
appeal to news admins to go in and edit their expiry scripts by hand so
that these newsgroups will stick around longer.

I'm bothered that the folks who want exceptional treatment are just
quietly "taking" it rather than asking each news admin for it.  I think
that the default on this 6800-site network should be that news admins
don't have to do anything to keep their system running OK.

However, it seems that the net has pretty much decided that people
are free to systematically put Expires: lines into their postings.
That's OK by me, I'm willing to conform, and I guess I *will* change
my expire script after all.

[Enter sarcasm:
By the way, I've decided that my postings are more important than
yours, so I am putting a 3-month expiry date on them.  I am constantly
getting requests for things that I posted and I have found a solution.
While your words quietly slip off disks all over the world, mine will
remain.  I only post a hundred K or so a month, so it will be no great
load on the net.  *** I encourage anyone else who reads this to add
their choice of Expires: line to each posting they create, too. ***
Sources moderators, how about expiring your postings in 2 or 3 years,
then we can get rid of the archives, which were always a bother to
maintain, plus consider all the e-mail traffic they generate.
Exit sarcasm, stage left.]

Nothing like fighting anarchy with anarchy, especially when
the net has just hashed it out and decided you have the right.

PS:  Now looks like a good time to buy stock in disk manufacturers!
-- 
{dasys1,ncoast,well,sun,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu	     gnu@postgres.berkeley.edu
Alt.all: the alternative radio of the Usenet.