In message <[log in to unmask]>, Tracy Pierce
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>ah, yes, the cross-posting to/from comp.sys.hp.mpe.  never having even seen
>the organization of those newsgroups (yes, those really are "newsgroups"
>right?; the hp3000-L is a listserv), I wouldn't pretend to know why you're
>attached to one regarding mpe.  having seen your spam posts before though,
>I'm not surprised at a) your defensive posture because of b) all the grief
>you're catching here.

For the avoidance of doubt:

The HP3000-L mailing list is 'gated' to and from the comp.sys.hp.mpe
Usenet newsgroup.

So you post to HP3000-L, and it goes to the Listserver, and mail copies
get sent to everyone on the HP3000-L list. And a copy also gets sent to
the gateway, which posts it as an article to comp.sys.hp.mpe, from
whence it gets spread round Usenet by the international network of
newsservers on the Internet.

And fetches up at my ISP, Demon, from whom I get my Usenet feed, as an
article in comp.sys.hp.mpe. Along with all the other mail postings to
HP3000-L, and all the other Usenet postings to comp.sys.hp.mpe

Now the gateway also reads all the postings in comp.sys.hp.mpe, and
filters out those that it originated from HP3000-L. For the rest, those
that originated on comp.sys.hp.mpe, it takes a copy of each one and
sends it as an email to each subscriber on the HP3000-L list.

Bottom line? You and I can communicate, with me reading and writing to
comp.sys.hp.mpe as a newsgroup and you reading and writing to HP3000-L
as mail, and us hardly knowing that we are doing it in such different
ways.

Niceties? You will never see an attachment in HP3000-L. The Listserver
strips them out, both from emails that HP3000-L subscribers send in, and
from articles gated across from comp.sys.hp.mpe

I'll never see an attachment from HP3000-L either (same reason), but I
might see one if somebody posts one on a comp.sys.hp.mpe article, as
I'll get that directly.

Virus? If you get a virus and it propagates via your address book,
HP3000-L will get one. But at least it will strip it out. If I get one,
it won't go out via comp.sys.hp.mpe. Any viruses injected into
comp.sys.hp.mpe are by specific user action (up until now...) And I will
see them. But again, they won't make it into HP3000-L

Spam? If somebody posts a spam to comp.sys.hp.mpe, we'll both see it.
It's harder, but not impossible, to spam HP3000-L. So it's unlikely. But
again if someone does, we'll both see it.

Second tries? If you miss it on HP3000-L, you missed it. You have to go
and read the archive. If you miss it on comp.sys.hp.mpe, you just wind
back your 'news since..' date and time to before it was sent, and take a
download. If you miss it for so long it expires off your ISP's
newsserver (~30 days), you can go and read the archive. Google Groups
carries all of comp.sys.hp.mpe since whenever.

Volume? HP3000-L is limited to 200 messages per day (as our OT TV
nostalgics have demonstrated). With comp.sys.hp.mpe, it's all you can
eat. (Though in practice, it goes very quiet once the gateway is passing
nothing from HP3000-L).

Cross-posting? With our Compaq 'friend' Shannon Knows Dick, he posts to
several newsgroups, and it goes to all of those. By dint of his
including comp.sys.hp.mpe, HP3000-L subscribers get a copy. But any
reply you make only goes round HP3000-L and comp.sys.hp.mpe. It doesn't
go to those other newsgroups. But my reply to him *did* go to all those
newsgroups. I could have chosen to restrict it to comp.sys.hp.mpe, if
I'd wanted, but I didn't.

Mail Oddities? People don't/can't send Out-Of-Office replies to
newsgroup postings. But they do to mailings, like HP3000-L. They
shouldn't, but they get their configuration wrong. Even if they do, they
should send them to the List Admin, not the original poster. But the
microbrains get that wrong too.

I confidently expect an OOO from somebody startlingly high up in HP when
I post this. He will know who he is..... :-)

So when you moan about spam or cross-postings coming in 'because
HP3000-L is gated to comp.sys.hp.mpe' and wonder about undoing the link,
just remember that 'our' downside is all those OOOs. And the upside is
that we can each communicate in our chosen way....
--
Roy Brown        'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be
Kelmscott Ltd     useful, or believe to be beautiful'  William Morris

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