tale@cs.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence) (02/24/90)
In article <941@tardis.Tymnet.COM> jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes: > Control: newgroup comp.periphs.scsi > Approved: jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM > The newgroup message did not arrive here - check your "junk" newsgroup. It did not arrive at your site and most others because it was newgrouped in a rather peculiar way that signals three fallacies regarding Distribution: alt. The first is that Distribution: works as you would expect it to. It doesn't. There have been a few articles posted during the last few months which describe the problems with the Distribution: header. In particular many sites will forward anything but their local distribution. The second is that the distribution (presuming it indeed worked correctly) of the newgroup would limit the distribution of subsequent postings to the group. It of course does not. Any postings to comp.periphs.scsi would go hither and yon to sites that got comp.periphs, not just to those who got it and were on the altnet. So at many sites it ends up getting thrown away to junk or the bit-bucket. The last is that admins who get alt must not mind it if the guidelines are breached in other hierachies too. For at least me, at least, this is not true. It is clearly a useful group and I decided to let this second newgroup stand but I still object to the premature creation. Dave -- (setq mail '("tale@cs.rpi.edu" "tale@ai.mit.edu" "tale@rpitsmts.bitnet"))