Dragaera

Holy War of Reply-To Munging

Gaertk at aol.com Gaertk at aol.com
Sat Nov 30 17:49:10 PST 2002

In a message dated 11/30/2002 5:30:16 PM Eastern Standard 
Time, Matthew Hunter <matthew at infodancer.org> writes:

> On Sat, Nov 30, 2002 at 05:19:24PM -0500, Gaertk at aol.com 
> wrote:
>> I'd like to point out that Usenet solved all these 
>> problems decades ago, as well as several issues that 
>> haven't been mentioned here (spoiler protection, quoting 
>> styles[1], REAL threading...).  Speaking just for myself, 
>> I would be overjoyed if this discussion were moved to a 
>> newsgroup somewhere.
>
> The problem with that is simple: as a mailing list, this is 
> a push medium -- you always get the messages. 

This actually is one of the reasons I prefer Usenet. YMV.

> Usenet is a pull medium, has propagation issues,

That's one reason I specifically asked about non-propogating
servers below.

> is less widely available,

If you have general internet access and something that works
as a newreader (darn near every web browser has this), then
you shouldn't have any trouble gettting into sff.net's 
server.  Has anyone tried the link I gave yet?  I know it 
works for me, but I'm already subscribed to that newsgroup.

> and setting up multiple newsservers for multiple groups is 
> a nightmare.

I found it fairly trivial to set up in Netscape, and I know
tin can be set up for multiple servers (haven't used any 
other newsreaders).

> I wouldn't mind someone putting together the proposal for a 
> *real* newsgroup, though -- say, > rec.arts.sf.written.steven-brust?

That would be fine with me, but I believe there's a 
considerable amount of work neccessary to create such a group
and get newsfeeds to carry it.  A group on a non-propogating
server would only need to have a way of telling people where
to find it.

>> Does anyone know what resources are neccessary for a 
>> non-propagating newsserver like sff.net has?  Or better 
>> yet, what needs to be done to get Mr. Brust a newsgroup 
>> over there (like Patrick and Teresa have[2])?
>
> Yes -- all you need is a newsserver.

news.sff.net is a publically accessable newsserver.  Try it.


--KG