Checksum: 18470 Lines: 41 Path: utzoo!sq!msb From: msb@sq.uucp (Mark Brader) Date: Fri, 23-Sep-88 12:27:56 EDT Message-ID: <1988Sep23.122756.22442@sq.uucp> Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: need patch for controlling cross-posted articles References: <14487@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto > >In 3.0, the Newsgroups line on a followup is truncated to the first group > >unless the '-C' option has been given to postnews. > > Gnews does this too. No flag is available to change this. ... This is absolutely the wrong thing to do. The Newsgroups line specifies a *set* of newsgroups, all equivalent; there has never been any understanding that one was more important than the rest. The result of this behavior is that people who read a message first in a group which is not the one mentioned first, and post a followup, will not find the article in the place they thought they were following up to, and will probably post it again! The *right* thing to do is for the posting software to *warn* people when they're posting [1] a followup to a cross-posted article, or [2] a followup to any article with a followup-to line, and give them an extra chance to change the Newsgroups line. This should happen after they have edited the article body. The posting program should also *demand* a Followup-To line on all cross-posted articles, whether originating or followups. This again should happen *after* the article body is prepared. And any time the user specifies a Followup-To line different from the Newsgroups line, it should then ask: Would you like to re-edit the message, to include a warning telling what your Followup-To line says? If you're going to apply a fix, apply the right fix! And while you're at it, I further suggest that after people have edited the message, they should be reminded of the Subject line and given a chance to change that, and then be prompted for a Summary line. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com "Everything that can be invented has been invented." -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899