[news.admin] Who is munging article headers

mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt) (11/15/88)

This morning, I was surprised to see an article, which I posted last
Friday (and read), mysteriously reappear.  Odd, I thought.  Even if it
had found its way back here, the netnoise software should have tossed
it in the dustbin, since it's already in the history file, right?

Then I had a look at the header.  Lookie here:

   Message-ID: <112@sickkids.UUCP>
   ---
   Message-ID: <8811140701.AA07480@jade.berkeley.edu>

Who, and by what authority, is trashing my Message-ID, and replacing it
with one of their own?  Oh, yeah, they changed my Organization, too:

   Organization: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
   ---
   Organization: The Internet

Gee, I didn't know I'd changed employers.  They made a few other changes,
as well.  For example, someone decided that the message shouldn't have
gone to both the newsgroups I posted the article to, so they chose the
one they considered appropriate:

   Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ibm,comp.protocols.misc
   ---
   Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ibm

They also totally removed the Distribution line that was there when the
article left here:

   Distribution: na

I'll have to go look in the netnoise source code to see what default
gets used if no Distribution is specified, but I have this fear that
my message has now (inappropriately) gone on a world tour.

Here's the Path line, folded for easier readability:

   Path: sickkids!lsuc!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!
           ucbvax!sickkids.UUCP!mark

The article left here (sickkids) via lsuc, thence (I presume) attcan.
From there, who knows?  Note that Berekeley has removed all the sites
between us (sickkids.UUCP) and them (ucbvax), so it's impossible to
tell what path it actually took to get there.  My original intent was
to include the Path line in hopes that it might help someone track down
the problem, in case Berkeley might have put some of the rubbish there
because they got handed a copy of the article with missing or invalid
header lines.  But since Berkeley seems to have decided to delete all
that possibly-useful information (I mean, what the heck is the damned
Path line *for*, if not to tell what path a message traveled to get
from point A to point B?), I guess it's all rather pointless.

Anyway, am I being reasonable in considering all the above examples of
header munging to be wrong, *wrong*, WRONG?  If so, would it be asking
too much to suggest that the people responsible for this spend some time
to fix it?

Or, if I *am* being unreasonable in my grousing, could someone please
provide a justification for all this header-rewriting?  Thanks.

Mark Bartelt                          UUCP: {utzoo,decvax}!sickkids!mark
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto   BITNET: mark@sickkids.utoronto
416/598-6442                          INTERNET: mark@sickkids.toronto.edu

david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) (11/17/88)

The munged article you received was by way of the gateway code
which is running at Berkeley.  They handle the gatewaying between
comp.protocols.ibm and whatever mailing list is attached to that group.
(As well as other newsgroup<->mailing list pairs).  The code does
all the transormations you described, except it will preserve the
any present article-id.  But, as I recall, comp.protocols.ibm is
from a LISTSERV based mailing list, and I wouldn't put it past
LISTSERV to get rid of the article-id...  BITNET often does gratuitous
disregard of existing standards/practices for what they feel are
good reasons.

Hope this helps
-- 
<-- David Herron; an MMDF guy                              <david@ms.uky.edu>
<-- ska: David le casse\*'      {rutgers,uunet}!ukma!david, david@UKMA.BITNET
<--
<-- Controlled anarchy -- the essence of the net.

efb@suned1.UUCP (Everett F. Batey II) (11/18/88)

In article <115@sickkids.UUCP> mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt) writes:
>This morning, I was surprised to see an article, which I posted last
>Friday (and read), mysteriously reappear.  Odd, I thought.  Even if it

>with one of their own?  Oh, yeah, they changed my Organization, too:

>   Organization: The Internet

Guess you are saying .. maybe we don't all work for the internet .. 
..ganization: NSWSES 4V43 Port Hueneme, CA 93043 - Opinions: Mine Alone.. 

I think though not an awk _ sed whiz that the majority of comp articles
I read are Org.. The Internet .. Who else .. /Ev/
-- 
           The_Main_User (So Calif SunLUG | Vta-SB-SLO-DECUS)
    efb@elroy.JPL.Nasa.Gov sun!tsunami!suned1!efb efbatey@nswses.arpa
      Statements, Opinions ... MINE ... NOT those of my US Employer  

wcf@psuhcx.psu.edu (Bill Fenner) (11/19/88)

In article <115@sickkids.UUCP> mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt) writes:
|This morning, I was surprised to see an article, which I posted last
|Friday (and read), mysteriously reappear.  Odd, I thought.  Even if it
|had found its way back here, the netnoise software should have tossed
|it in the dustbin, since it's already in the history file, right?
|
|Then I had a look at the header.  Lookie here:
|
|   Message-ID: <112@sickkids.UUCP>
|   ---
|   Message-ID: <8811140701.AA07480@jade.berkeley.edu>
|
|Who, and by what authority, is trashing my Message-ID, and replacing it
|with one of their own?  Oh, yeah, they changed my Organization, too:
|
|   Organization: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
|   ---
|   Organization: The Internet
|
|Gee, I didn't know I'd changed employers.  They made a few other changes,
|as well.  For example, someone decided that the message shouldn't have
|gone to both the newsgroups I posted the article to, so they chose the
|one they considered appropriate:
|
|   Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ibm,comp.protocols.misc
|   ---
|   Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ibm
|
Is comp.protocols.ibm an inet group?  If so, the message probably went
to the mailing list, then back to Berkeley, who gatewayed it back into
USENET.  Problem.

|Here's the Path line, folded for easier readability:
|
|   Path: sickkids!lsuc!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!
|           ucbvax!sickkids.UUCP!mark
|
|The article left here (sickkids) via lsuc, thence (I presume) attcan.
|From there, who knows?  Note that Berekeley has removed all the sites
|between us (sickkids.UUCP) and them (ucbvax), so it's impossible to
|tell what path it actually took to get there.  My original intent was
Well, it makes sense, if they got the message from the mailing list
(which they origionally sent there, but that's beside the point) as from
mark@sickkids.UUCP, that would be a reasonable path line.

|Anyway, am I being reasonable in considering all the above examples of
|header munging to be wrong, *wrong*, WRONG?  If so, would it be asking
|too much to suggest that the people responsible for this spend some time
|to fix it?
|
It's very wrong, but it wasn't done as a part of the netnews software;
it happened as apart of the inet gatewaying (at least I think it was.)

  Bill
-- 
    Bitnet: wcf@psuhcx.bitnet     Bill Fenner     | "Ain't got no cash,
   Internet: wcf@hcx.psu.edu                      |  Ain't got no style
  UUCP: {gatech,rutgers}!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf       |  Ain't got no girls 
 Fido: Sysop at 263/42 (814/238 9633)  \hogbbs!wcf|  To make me smile"