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From: roskos@IDA.ORG (Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.misc
Subject: Invalid expiration dates in Usenet postings
Message-ID: <1990Feb12.142313.29430@IDA.ORG>
Date: 12 Feb 90 14:23:13 GMT
Organization: IDA, Alexandria, VA
Lines: 20

Currently there is an increasing tendency for people to put invalid
expiration dates in their postings.  This morning there were 29 invalid
expiration dates, containing words such as "never", "when?", "Someday",
"Best before Feb 1", etc. 

Since this field in the header serves a useful purpose, it seems as if
future versions of the news software might better handle invalid information
in this field.  Some of the invalid fields are genuine errors, such as
putting "2/15/90" for the date.  The invalid dates show up in the error logs
for "C" news, where one must weed through them to find the real errors,
wasting already-limited news administrator time.  If invalid fields were
detected at posting time, as is the case for some of the other fields,
people could correct the errors before they get out onto the network.

Just a suggestion.
-- 
Eric Roskos (roskos@IDA.ORG or Roskos@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL)

	"Some countries maintain `fast time' throughout the year, in which
	 case it becomes `standard time'." -- DMA World Map 1150 (USGS)