steve@nuchat.UUCP (Steve Nuchia) (08/29/89)
[crossposted to news.software.b because this discussion from news.newusers.questions has pointed out a common fault we might want to try to fix and reminded me of an idea.] In article <1989Aug26.213711.16326@twwells.com> bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) writes: >Much to my great dismay, it seems that many installations are set up >so that cancellations do not work. Why, I don't know. I do know that >my standard installation of rn does *not* allow me to cancel articles. >Maybe I screwed something up or maybe there is something incompatible >in the various pieces of software I use. This seems to be pretty common. Someone posted and explanation of what combination of configuation options leads to it, but it isn't obvious to the average news installer. We either need to patch the software so it works better, or see below... >Note also that, since cancelling an article does not guarantee that >no one has read the article, a _short_ posting apologizing for a >*very* egregious posting might not be out of line. Since the "supercedes" header has been developed, why not use it for this sort of thing? Provide a user interface with a name like "retract" that sends out a message containing your short statement superceding the offending message. The authentication still has to be done right, of course. Followups to news.software.b -- Steve Nuchia South Coast Computing Services uunet!nuchat!steve POB 890952 Houston, Texas 77289 (713) 964 2462 Consultation & Systems, Support for PD Software.