[news.admin] Using "local" ... considered harmful etc

root@ozdaltx.UUCP (root) (08/22/87)

In an article, a whole bunch of people wrote... blah... blah
blah...
>article in question, namely:
>+--
>| From: root@ozdaltx.UUCP (root)
>| Newsgroups: sci.med,local.general
>| Subject: STRESS DIET :-)
>| Message-ID: <4157@ozdaltx.UUCP>
>+--

"ls /usr/spool/news/*/*/*  | grep -y 'flame' > /dev/bitch.bitch.bitch"

OK folks, here's ole rooter, the accused of said faux paux.
First, I'm not a code hacker. I'll get in and dig in order
to get something to run... when I am forced to.
I leave it up to the 'big boys' to do the fancy stuff.
I understood, (along with others, no doubt) that local groups
were just that and went no futher. (The man pages &
documentation are terrible... undoubtly written for
programers by programers).

Judging from the number of posting relating this problem, it
appears to me that I'm not the only one guilty of this
haneous crime. :-). 

The obvious solution is NOT to distribute past local, OR
make two seperate postings if you're trying to be sure that
a specific segment sees the article. That's what we're doing
now.

But the fix MAY BE to create a file that contains a distribution
list associated with each newgroup. So, when an article is posted,
any local NG are removed from the 'Newsgroup: ' line before sending
to the batcher. Something like:

	local.all	local
	sci.med		net
	tx.all		tx
	dfw.all		dfw
	comp.all	na,usa,att	(na OR usa OR att, etc)

Get the picture?? Anything NOT in the list can be specified
for distribution in the usual manner. Take the following for
example;
         Newsgroups: sci.med,local.general
	 Distribution: net

Seen this before?... if a local NG is included in the
Newsgroups line, it is stripped before being sent to the
batch file. In this case it would be necessary to have
two physical copys of the article in the system; the local one
and the one for distribution. This may not be a problem,
since how often is cross-posting of this nature done?

Thereby creating locally a file contining,
         Newsgroups: sci.med,local.general
	 Distribution: net

AND a file in sci.med (local system) showing,

         Newsgroups: sci.med
	 Distribution: net

which is the entry sent to the batcher.

This may not be the best answer.. but at this time, it's the
only one I can offer. At least I'm AM offering a possible
solution and not just sitting and complaining. :-)

-- 
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