Subj : Third Party Updates
To   : Roy Witt
From : Thom LaCosta
Date : Wed Sep 06 2000 03:46 am

Roy Witt wrote in a message to Thom LaCosta:

 TL> No, but you can't relist an echo and hide behind someone else's name.

 RW> You mean the previous moderator's name.

Doesn't matter whose name....there have been instances of folks submitting MOD 
UPD messages and listing moderators who were, in fact not moderators, or not 
reachable, etc.  I'm sure you're aware of some of those instances.

 TL> Once that's done, it's pretty clear when a dead echo is re-boned, or
 TL> re-named, or killed off that the person doing is is the moderator,
 TL> not some third party.

 RW> As a third party, I do all of this.  I do it for someone who's not
 RW> interested in learning the Z1 elist procedures, nor having to deal
 RW> with either NA backbones.  

I can only comment on the elist side of things...and that is from my very 
specific viewpoint, any one who won't take the time to learn a very simple 
proceedure is not fullfilling a very simple responsibility.

 RW> All he cares about is whether his echo
 RW> is boned and available in Z1, as well as protected from echo tag
 RW> pirates.  

He can't care that much if he has no interest in doing it himself.

 RW> He had no objection to me putting myself in the moderator
 RW> list and he get's his copy of the update (password included)
 RW> everytime I do it.  

If you're one of the moderators for the echo, then he can be as irresponsible 
as he chooses.

 RW> Seems to me this is going to be the only way
 RW> around the 'no third party' rule. 

Not really...all the moderator has to do is confirm that he/she wants to use a 
third party updater.  If they can't/won't do that, then it would appear to me 
that either they're not active, or that the third party update isn't what it 
appears to be.

 RW>> This is getting sillier by the day...

 TL> Sure is...and the silliness stems from folks distorting the
 TL> expiration dates and accuracy of the echolist.

 RW> How so?  Echolist tag expiration is set by the robot when it
 RW> receives a MOD UPD with the correct password.  All other attempts
 RW> are ignored, accept for the 'pirate' warning it sends to the
 RW> elisted moderator.  I proved that to myself this past weekend,
 RW> doing some echo deletions.   Reading the echolist updates posted in
 RW> ECHOLIST, all one has to do is observe the line which tells us
 RW> 'who' updated the tag.

The silliness comes from the fact that with a third party update there is no 
assurance that the moderator listed is the actual moderator, that the the 
moderator has the password, or receives the confirmation message.

Thom LaCosta
baltimoremd@baltimoremd.com
http://www.baltimoremd.com/ 
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 * Origin: Home of The Other Robot (1:1/21)

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