afc@shibaya.lonestar.org (Augustine Cano) (10/17/90)
After unbatching a particularly large number of news batches, cnews sent
me a mail message with title: Problems with your active file, that
instructed me to get rid of 195 news groups. After going through the list,
this made no sense.
Although some groups, such as alt.fan.BIFF and alt.bitch.pork, only take
up bandwidth, in the destined for deletion list were also very popular
and long-standing groups such as alt.bbs.waffle, alt.personals and
alt.security, not to mention comp.lang.perl, rec.pyrotechnics, comp.text.tex,
control and junk. If I remove junk, where will articles without a proper
home go? Not only that, all the to.<uucp neighbor> apparently have to go,
this is insane.
If I recall correctly, the voting process was carried out
formally for at least rec.pyrotechnics, and my understanding is that the
whole purpose of the alt.net is to be a less formal ALTernative.
I checked the control group and saw only some newgroups, rmgroups, the
gnu checkgroups, and some cancel <article>.
After giving me all 195 commands to achieve this, I'm supposed to add
587 new groups from all kinds of remote local areas (such as are Stanford
U. and Australia from Texas.) Is this supposed to happen like this or did
I mis-configure something?
If this is a globally sent command, what's the deal? It didn't appear in
the control group. Or has cnews lost its mind? Or is somebody trying
to eliminate valid news groups surreptitiously, in an official sounding
manner?
--
Augustine Cano INTERNET: afc@shibaya.lonestar.org
UUCP: ...!{ernest,tsci,egsner}!shibaya!afchenry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (10/18/90)
In article <1990Oct16.235959.300@shibaya.lonestar.org> afc@shibaya.lonestar.org (Augustine Cano) writes: >After unbatching a particularly large number of news batches, cnews sent >me a mail message with title: Problems with your active file, that >instructed me to get rid of 195 news groups. After going through the list, >this made no sense. This is the "checkgroups" code, which is known to be buggy, partly because there has never been a clear specification for what it was supposed to do. Ignore it. -- "...the i860 is a wonderful source | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology of thesis topics." --Preston Briggs | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
gary@sci34hub.UUCP (Gary Heston) (10/18/90)
In article <1990Oct16.235959.300@shibaya.lonestar.org> afc@shibaya.lonestar.org (Augustine Cano) writes: >After unbatching a particularly large number of news batches, cnews sent >me a mail message with title: Problems with your active file, that >instructed me to get rid of 195 news groups. After going through the list, >this made no sense. Relax. Someone probably posted a checkgroups with the wrong distribution that was received on your system. It happens about twice a year, which is suprisingly low considering the number of sites. The giveaway is when there are hierarchies you don't carry, or local.* groups that don't match yours, and it's calling for the removal of groups that you know are valid. Relax; ignore it; it doesn't hurt anything. You might want to look at the path of the control message and send a note back to the originator (who's probably catching a lot of flack) reminding them to check the Distribution: header, next time... -- Gary Heston { uunet!sci34hub!gary } System Mismanager SCI Technology, Inc. OEM Products Department (i.e., computers) "The esteemed gentlebeing says I called him a liar. It's true, and I regret that." Retief, in "Retiefs' Ransom" by Keith Laumer.
news@iddth.id.dk (Usenet News Manager) (10/24/90)
gary@sci34hub.UUCP (Gary Heston) writes: [...] >Relax. Someone probably posted a checkgroups with the wrong distribution >that was received on your system. It happens about twice a year, which is >suprisingly low considering the number of sites. I got such checkgroups at least five times since I overtook the administration of news at our site in June. >Relax; ignore it; it doesn't hurt anything. My newsgroups list gets garbled and I have to restore it every time. It's a very good thing that c-news makes a back-up... > You might want to look at the >path of the control message and send a note back to the originator (who's >probably catching a lot of flack) reminding them to check the Distribution: >header, next time... >-- > Gary Heston { uunet!sci34hub!gary } System Mismanager > SCI Technology, Inc. OEM Products Department (i.e., computers) >"The esteemed gentlebeing says I called him a liar. It's true, and I >regret that." Retief, in "Retiefs' Ransom" by Keith Laumer. Long Haired Nick My .sig is on leave.