SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (07/24/90)
On Mon, 23 Jul 90 09:58-0600 you said: >I checked with our sysadmin and it is possible to configure the news >software to automatically gateway netnews into a bitnet mailing address. >There are some people at psu who do this for a number of newsgroups. You >might want to send mail to: > postmaster@psuvax1.psu.edu >And see if they are willing to handle comp.binaries.apple2 for you. It >makes little sense for you to do it by hand when a program can do it for >you. NetNews can be made available in whole or in part on VM machines, although getting the feed over BITNET probably isn't practical and many Internet sites don't want to expend the bandwidth (psuvax1 happens to be a UUCP gateway, and a number of other places have UUCP hosts in close proximity to their Internet/BITNET hosts). In any case, simply getting USENET doesn't solve the problem. We CAN send from Brown TO comp.binaries.apple2 already via ucbvax. The problem is how to insure that what's sent TO comp.binaries.apple2 doesn't duplicate what's already there. Chris may be able to arrange to have comp.binaries.apple2 send directly to APPLE2-L and prevent looping by continuing to 'edit' the list. Since everyone should be able to address files TO APPLE2-L and many BITNET and Internet subscribers can't address files to comp.binaries.apple2 (or read what's posted there), the simplest solution would be to submit EVERYTHING to APPLE2-L and let APPLE2-L post to comp.binaries.apple2. I believe Chris already sends anything that doesn't arrive with the newsgroup header to comp.binaries.apple2. Hence the remaining problem is that files don't hang around comp.binaries.apple2 forever so there often are requests to repost popular files. On the other hand, as far as I know even UUCP sites can retrieve files from the APPLE2-L archive as long as they address their GET commands to LISTERV@BrownVM.Brown.Edu (the Internet address). /s Murph <Sewall%UConnVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.Edu> [Internet] or ...{psuvax1 or mcvax}!uconnvm.bitnet!sewall [UUCP] + Standard disclaimer applies ("The opinions expressed are my own" etc.)
SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (07/24/90)
On Mon, 23 Jul 90 15:32:29 EDT you said: >There is a site at psu that gateways many of the bitnet groups. It is >trivial to add a mailing list at that site to take all messages and >automatically post them to the group. This is much better than forcing >some poor bastard to post everything by hand. But if APPLE2-L is sending anything it receives to comp.sys.apple2 then how do you prevent looping? If it doesn't loop, it's a good idea. APPLE2-L is edited for a reason; perhaps Chris will send you a copy of everything sent to APPLE2-L that he DOESN'T post for a month and you'll see why (as any Marine Sargeant will tell you, no matter what you do 10% of the people won't get the word :-) >Using Apple2-L is a bad idea. USENET should not be the slave of those >sites unwilling to carry it. Better to configure the USENET software to >forward postings where necessary. Much cleaner and better philosopically. APPLE2-L is somewhat older (and more reliable) than comp.binaries.apple2. which isn't even carried by all UUCP sites much less most Internet and BITNET hosts (take a peek at the APPLE2-L subscriber list -- all the ProLines receive the files from APPLE2-L, for example). Also, when comp.binaries.apple2 ARCHIVES let us know ;-) There are quite a few folks that don't care to pay for program files they don't want so they don't subscribe to either list. From time to time they INDEX the archive and GET what they want (and ONLY what they want). If the choice comes down to one versus the other, knowledgable folks would probably prefer an archive site. comp.binaries.apple2 is an efficient means of distributing to UUCP sites, but it hasn't any particular advantage (and some disadvantages) distributing to Internet/BITNET hosts. /s Murph <Sewall%UConnVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.Edu> [Internet] or ...{psuvax1 or mcvax}!uconnvm.bitnet!sewall [UUCP] + Standard disclaimer applies ("The opinions expressed are my own" etc.)