skyler@violet.berkeley.edu (07/15/88)
Certain kinds of news programs cause the moderator to receive duplicate copies of a posting. Sometimes these come all at once, but sometimes they trickle in. I try to keep track, but have messed up and will mess up in the future. Unfortunately, once I have posted something, I can't cancel it. So, if you notice an article of yours which has been posted more than once, _please_ cancel the duplicate. Thanks, Trish
jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) (07/16/88)
Joe Buck explains in greater detail why some software programs lead
to duplicate copies of a posting get to me.
The problem is this: obsolete versions of the news software believe
that if a group's name doesn't start with "mod", it's not moderated.
So the article is posted in the usual fashion (I tell two friends,
and they tell two friends, and so on). But as soon as the article
hits a site with the new software, the article is mailed to the
moderator at that point. This is usually many points, and each
time mail is generated. Result: you get many copies of the article.
Anytime you see multiple copies of an article, you know that the
poster's site runs obsolete software. Ask them to put pressure on
their sys admin to install the current software, or to only post
articles by mailing in the future.
We've been pleading with people to install the latest version of
news, but it's a struggle. AT&T, particularly, has a lot of ancient,
buggy news software. As a moderator you get to see the results of
this.
--
- Joe Buck {uunet,ucbvax,pyramid,<smart-site>}!epimass.epi.com!jbuck
jbuck@epimass.epi.com Old Arpa mailers: jbuck%epimass.epi.com@uunet.uu.net
If you leave your fate in the hands of the gods, don't be
surprised if they have a few grins at your expense. - Tom Robbins