desj@brahms.berkeley.edu (David desJardins) (05/12/88)
In article <52859@sun.uucp> chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) suggests
that when a message is crossposted, the posting program should
automatically generate a Followup-To: line directing followups only to
the first group in the Newsgroups: line.
Unfortunately, this proposal would require changing the installed
news software at each and every network site. And everyone knows that
this simply isn't going to happen. So I think that, if we really want
to have an effect, that we consider a modification of Chuq's proposal.
What I suggest is that sites which receive crossposted articles with
blank or missing Followup-To: lines could automatically modify those
articles to include Followup-To: lines to the first group in the
Newsgroups: line. This would have the same effect as Chuq's proposal,
not only at the site with the modification but at every downstream site.
Obviously, users at either end could override this; the poster by
including an explicit Followup-To: line, and the recipient by modifying
the Newsgroups: line of his followup.
If this filter were installed at only the backbone sites, and
gradually propagated to others as they updated their news software, then
it seems that it would take effect over a large fraction of the net
almost immediately. It could be distributed as a patch to the news
software.
The more that I think about this, the better it sounds. I'd like to
hear some serious discussion of any disadvantages people see to this
approach, and whether it should be pursued. (I'm crossposting to
news.software.b so that the people who might actually put something like
this into the software will see the proposal, but the discussion should
remain in news.misc, I think.)
-- David desJardins