werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (03/25/86)
Subject: duplicate postings to INFO-MAC (via mod.mac) and net.micro.mac Followup-To: net.news.group - or return mail to me for digested posting As many readers noticed (with great frustration, I suspect), a significant number of recent postings to net.micro.mac appeared also in INFO-MAC-digests. My original suspicion was that this is caused by posting an article to both net.micro.mac as well as mod.mac (which the news-software converts into a mail-message to INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA, actually). The moderator of INFO-MAC has no indication that a message was the result of a posting to mod.mac rather than directly mailed and that it was also posted to net.micro.mac at the same time (we are looking into improving on that aspect) and, therefore, includes the message in the next digest. However, I asked a local user whose recent posting appeared in both groups, if he had posted to both groups (mod.mac and net.micro.mac) and he responded with a definite NO; which leaves me puzzled. Does anyone have any other explanation? The header of his message in net.micro.mac does not indicate posting to mod.mac also, and it wasn't a reply to an earlier message, which would go to all referenced newsgroups either. Is there any other explanation (other than he doesn't remember right ?? - no criticism of him doing so would be justified, because noone ever explained or announced the working of the mod-groups sufficiently, or warned against multiple postings in mod.mac) net.micro.mac and INFO-MAC are a very special and unique case anyway, because no other group exchanges digests the way they are done here. Which may be part of the problem, anyway, and the solution might simply be to handle things like it has been done for many years in such groups as INFO-MICRO/net.micro and INFO-CPM/net.micro.cpm, where messages are not digested or distinguished by net of origin. With the current set-up of posting Delphi-digests to net.micro.mac and INFO-MAC digests to mod.mac, and having seperate distribution lists on ARPA for the Delphi- and Usenet- messages, we are setting ourselves up for bad trouble, as soon as the next moderator succumbs to "burn-out" and communications break down again for several months at end. There is another aspect which is *VERY WRONG*, mainly that currently all articles posted to mod.mac are mailed to ARPA's moderator of INFO-MAC, multiplying his load instantly, because whereas before he only received mail from those "in the know" how to post to an ARPA-bboard by mailing via a gateway-machine (a relative minority) now he receives everyone's postings to mod.mac also. Proposed solutions: Short-term: post ARPA's INFO-MAC digest to net.micro.mac, just like is done with the Delphi-digest. Disable mod.mac until a better set-up can be agreed upon and implemented . OR, alternatively: post the INFO-MAC-digest to mod.mac, but disable the mailing of USENET-posted mod.mac articles to the ARPA-moderator, until a USENET-moderator is found (the ARPA-moderator's load is too heavy to take this one on, too) Long-term: find a moderator for a USENET moderated group mod.micro.mac (a little consistency in names, please), who handles the USENET traffic. the digests from Delphi and ARPA should then be moved to this group also. PS: ignorance on my part *IS* an excuse for any nonsense or inaccuracies ((-: