Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!bingvaxu!leah!itsgw!steinmetz!crdgw1!crdgw1.ge.com!barnett From: barnett@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: suggested change for newsreaders Message-ID: <37@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> Date: 14 Mar 89 10:59:39 GMT References: <2813776185@stearns.steinmetz.ge.com> <259@algor2.UUCP> <7289@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com> <2814479975@Stearns.Steinmetz> Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com Reply-To: barnett@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) Organization: GE Corp. R & D, Schenectady, NY Lines: 48 In-reply-to: welty@steinmetz.ge.com (richard welty) In article <7289@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com>, I wrote about the concept of a primary newsgroup. In article <2814479975@Stearns.Steinmetz>, welty@steinmetz (richard welty) writes: > in any case, the convention is undependable >simply because currently people don't follow it. Sigh! I know. I would like the newsreaders to gently enforce the concept. Something like: You have cross-posted to 5 newsgroups. These are (1) alt.cyberpunk High-tech low-life. (2) bionet.molbio.embldatabank Info about the EMBL Nucleic acid database. (3) news.misc Discussions of USENET itself. (4) comp.binaries.ibm.pc Binary-only postings for IBM PC/MS-DOS. (5) talk.religion.newage Esoteric and minority religions & philosophies. Which one is the most appropriate newsgroup? [ 5 ] You have a large number of newsgroups in your article. Specify which ones you want to keep [ 1 2 3 4 5 ] ===== The responses would be the numbers of the newsgroup from the above list. The default for the second question is to NOT crosspost to the newsgroups other than the primary one. This would: indicate whether a newsgroup is appropriate for the posting. Provide a mechanism for selecting the best newsgroup for archives and follow-ups. Make people think (and work) if they insist on using 5 newsgroups in a follow-up article. Someone with a legitimate topic wouldn't mind verifying all of those newsgroups. But it might make the 5-second poster think before posting. -- Bruce G. Barnett barnett@ge-crd.ARPA, barnett@steinmetz.ge.com uunet!steinmetz!barnett