Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Why do I get junk newsgroups?
Message-ID: <1991Feb19.215318.23089@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <20752@teda.UUCP> <M_-&W`^@rpi.edu>
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 1991 21:53:18 GMT

In article <M_-&W`^@rpi.edu> tale@rpi.edu (David C Lawrence) writes:
>Yes and no.  Henry and Geoff will maintain that it is a feature which
>helps the propagation of valid new groups, and this is a reasonable point
>which I appreciate...

This one is clearly a two-edged sword, to be sure.  However, to be realistic
one *must* acknowledge that things like group-creation messages often do not
get the complete propagation they should.  The net is a much messier place
than one would think on theoretical grounds, and robustness in the face of
such things is important.

>... There are two
>possible changes; a) rewrite the header in inews to substitute correct
>names for the refiled groups or b) give an error as with the n or x
>flag.  The latter is much easier to implement.

There is a good chance that the latter will appear in the official C News
distribution in the near future; forbidding posting to refiled groups seems
like a reasonable idea.
-- 
"Read the OSI protocol specifications?  | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
I can't even *lift* them!"              |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
