andy@Shasta.ARPA (10/11/85)
I know that this is a small matter compared to the keyword vs other debate but .... Is there some reason that there is no standard mail box at every site for usenet problems, question, etc? (For those of you with arpanet experience, the postmaster address serves much the same purpose.) As it is now, the contact address is usually a person. There are two problems with that. The first is rather trivial. You always have to look up the correct name (and all the problems that can cause). The second is a little more serious. People aren't necessarily there just because the machine is. Most of the contacts take vacations and occasionally change jobs. In the latter case, the map entry gets updated but people who "remember" are out of luck. In the former case, well, when is the last time you changed the map entry before you went on vacation? (Given the map distribution delay, I'd be surprised if more than a few ever do.) If every site used postmaster (for argument's sake, pick another name if it's better) as the usenet contact and it was locally aliased to the correct person, neither of these problems would exist. You can go away for a week and know that usenet adminstration mail is being delivered to someone (assuming you remembered to update the alias) without giving them access to your mailbox. Then again, this isn't very anarchistic. -andy
fair@ucbarpa.BERKELEY.EDU (Erik E. &) (10/14/85)
In article <1049@Shasta.ARPA> andy@Shasta.ARPA writes: > >Is there some reason that there is no standard mail box at every site >for usenet problems, question, etc? (For those of you with arpanet >experience, the postmaster address serves much the same purpose.) The standard one is `usenet', unfortunately there are two problems: 1. people set up shop without reading the documentation all the way (and therefore don't get to that little tidbit). 2. the majority of mailers on the UUCP/USENET do not support mail aliasing as those of us fortunate enough to have 2 or 4 BSD know it. Fortunately, you are in a position to affect the behavior of your neighbors. Since you know better, convince your UUCP/USENET neighbors (the ones who you are most likely to have problems with in any case) to set up such aliases (if that's possible on their system), and suggest that they do so with their neighbors. Assure them that if they mail to the appropriate address on YOUR system, that the problem will be taken care of promptly, regardless of whether you handle it, or someone you designate handles it. Who knows? It might spread, and we could stop debating this topic... keeper of the network news for ucbvax, Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucbarpa.BERKELEY.EDU
mojo@kepler.UUCP (Morris Jones) (10/17/85)
In article <10649@ucbvax.ARPA> fair@ucbarpa.BERKELEY.EDU (Erik E. &) writes: [regarding standard mailboxes for usenet administrators: >The standard one is `usenet', unfortunately there are two problems: > > 1. people set up shop without reading the documentation all > the way (and therefore don't get to that little tidbit). > > 2. the majority of mailers on the UUCP/USENET do not support > mail aliasing as those of us fortunate enough to have > 2 or 4 BSD know it. > Erik, Here's a quote from the 2.10.3 "install" document which was my guideline for setting up the network news at MicroPro (besides your kind assistance): 2.2.2. NEWSUSR [define] This is the owner (user name) of inews. If you are a superuser, you should probably create a new user id (tradi- tionally news) and use this id. If you are not a superuser, ^^^^ you can use your own user id. If you are able to, you ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ should create a mail alias usenet and have mail to this alias forwarded to you. This will make it easier for other sites to find the right person in the presence of changing jobs and out of date or nonexistent directory pages. [end of quote] That's pretty vague. I followed the instructions exactly. I created the user "news" as the network news superuser. Since I was not able to create a mail alias "usenet" I didn't, and ignored the rest of the paragraph. If I'd had more knowledge of the net at the time, and wasn't relying solely on the instructions, I'd have created "usenet" to be the network news superuser. Maybe this paragraph should be rewritten. -- Mojo ... Morris Jones, MicroPro Product Development {ptsfa,hplabs,glacier,lll-crg}!well!micropro!kepler!mojo