In article <[log in to unmask]>,
Dirickson Steve <[log in to unmask]> writes
>>I've had problems reading your postings ... I sometimes don't bother,
>because
>>I know ahead of time that I'll have difficulty determining what's the
>>quoted content, and what's the new content.
>
>Well, now, that's a different story; if anyone is having difficulty reaping
>the bounty of my wisdom, it is clearly incumbent on me to take the
>appropriate steps to ensure that the shining beacon of enlightenment is
>readily accessible to all.
>
>Or something like that.
>
>
>>Sorry...it still caused problems. Q. E. D.
>
>We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. In my mind, the "problem" is
>akin to someone having a "problem" because s/he keeps ending up with either
>stripped screws or broken blades when using a pocketknife as a screwdriver.
>Mailing lists and newsgroups have different content styles, different user
>bases, different back-end support, work best with different front ends, and
>are not well served by trying to combine them. Like using a knife as a
>screwdriver, it works, more or less, much of the time.
>
Well, as it happens, we *do* receive the List via the comp.sys.hp.mpe
newsgroup on Usenet, rather than the HP3000-L mailing list.
Using the UK product Turnpike, we receive mail and news at the same
time, for later offline reading. Even if we did use HP3000-L, there
would still be only the one download, as Turnpike would let us all share
the mailing list as a pseudo-newsgroup.
It might surprise you that this is possible, but let me assure you it
works very well; in effect we could be HP3000-L subscribers, and would
still get threading, and expiry, just as we do with comp.sys.hp.mpe. The
only difference is that it would arrive as individual emails in the mail
download, instead of articles in the news download; after that, they
could be identical.
Anyway, your assumptions about us 'not being equipped' for the 64k
download, because we use HP3000-L, are also incorrect. We'd have got 64k
either way.
The 'hit' for us, BTW, was an extra 20 second's download time at local
telephone rates (local calls aren't free in the UK).
A bit like the mailman delivering an Anvil through my letterbox instead
of the expected Advil, worsening my headache instead of soothing it.
The 'hit' for the Internet, of course, was 64k extra in every mailout to
HP3000-L, 64k extra to every server on the planet, and 64k extra to
every reader of comp.sys.hp.mpe
(However, the '64k to every server on the planet' probably pales into
insignificance alongside the tide of warez, porn, and other 'legitimate'
binaries floating around...)
But, leaving aside considerations of being on- or off-topic, you are
quite wrong about binaries 'sometimes' being acceptable in newsgroups.
By charter, newsgroups are either binary (in which case binaries are
*always* welcome) or text-only (in which case they are *never* welcome).
Subscribers to binary newsgroups generally take 'Headers Only' in the
first place, and then Request those binaries that interest them. Users
of Text-only groups do not expect to have to do this.
The answer, ALWAYS, when talk in a text-only ng leads to the potential
delivery of a binary you have, is to put the code on your website and
post a URL so that those interested may collect it from there.
Or, as I did last year with Stitcher, offer to email it to those who
specifically request it. Either way, you can be sure to please the few
who would value it without offing the majority who wouldn't.
|Steve, I do realise that you were not the original perpetrator, but I
suggest that you get this one straightened out for yourself if you ever
think of posting any binaries to Usenet; the response in many text-only
newsgroups will be a lot more 'robust' than what has passed here, and
might shock even a Navy man!
--
Roy Brown Phone : (01684) 291710 Fax : (01684) 291712
Affirm Ltd Email : [log in to unmask]
The Great Barn, Mill St 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
TEWKESBURY GL20 5SB (UK) know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'
|
