kevin@cfctech.cfc.com (Kevin Darcy) (04/06/91)
In article <1991Apr5.163045.1576@zardoz.eng.ohio-state.edu> Steven.S.Brack@osu.edu writes: > One of the posters to alt.flame, Oleg Kiselev (oleg@veritas.com) has >been posting articles with followups directed to other (unrelated) newsgroups. >Most of the time, he directs followups to {comp|misc|alt|rec}.test. Ah, the aroma of Ye Olde Misc.test Trick... > The result of all this is that persons following up his articles are >deluged with mail from autoreplydaemons. In most cases, news software is >configured not to show the Newsgroups: or Followup-to: lines, so posters don't >even know that this is happening until they login to find several hundred >messages waiting. Or in my case, they find out when their sysadmins cut off >their accounts because of inappropriate cross-posts. Your sysadmins are a) NAIVE if they don't know about Ye Olde Misc.test Trick, and/or b) REMISS if they -do- know about it, but still went ahead and configured your newsreader(s) as you describe, and/or c) ARBITRARY if they cut off your account without examining the relevant facts. But, I suppose such knowledge doesn't help you at this stage, so I won't belabor the point... > I wrote to postmaster@veritas.com & news@veritas.com, telling them what >was happening. The response from veritas was not positive. Their attitude is >that USENet is "not to be taken seriously," so therefore they will do nothing >about this user. One thing to keep in mind is that people who answer the mail of "postmaster" and/or "news" on a news machine are often the same kind of anarchistic, devil-may-care types who would perpetrate Ye Olde Misc.test Trick. Some call this the "Spirit of Usenet". Others call it the "Back-room Techie God Syndrome"... > My questions: > > (1) Is what oleg@veritas.com does proper netiquette? Neti-what?? > (2) Are his administrators responsible for stopping him? > (3) If they don't stop him, what other remedies are available? Remedies, legal or otherwise, would probably be quite hard to come by. If you don't mind crusading on pure -principle-, however, you might be able to spare others the same fate you have suffered. Please email me... I would also like to point out that Ye Olde Misc.test Trick is only -partly- a "social problem": it is also a -technical- problem. If those autoreply daemons did not exist, or they were more discriminating, then *.test groups wouldn't be the "attractive nuisance" they are today. Any autoreply daemon which is capable of responding to an article which a) Does not have "test" in its Subject: line somewhere (matched case-insensitively), or b) Has a non-empty References: line is -Buggy- with a capital 'B'. Autoreply developers take careful note... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ kevin@cfctech.cfc.com | Kevin Darcy, Unix Systems Administrator ...sharkey!cfctech!kevin | Technical Services (CFC) Voice: (313) 948-4863 | Chrysler Corporation Fax: (313) 948-4975 | 27777 Franklin, Southfield, MI 48034 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------