Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cbosgd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!mark From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) Newsgroups: net.news.group Subject: Re: New newgroup suggestion--Re: Permanent Postings Message-ID: <599@cbosgd.UUCP> Date: Sat, 22-Dec-84 20:31:58 EST Article-I.D.: cbosgd.599 Posted: Sat Dec 22 20:31:58 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 23-Dec-84 01:52:28 EST References: <33@angband.UUCP> <729@watdcsu.UUCP>Organization: Bell Labs, Columbus Lines: 20 It's an interesting idea, but in effect, posting an article with an expiration date 5 years in the future has the same result using today's software. The following two problems are not dealt with by the current scheme, and probably not with any reasonably simple scheme for permanent postings: (1) People who use "find . -mtime +14" to remove old news. If expire didn't have any bugs I would never do this, but in practice I seem to have to do it every once in a while. (2) New sites that were not on Usenet when the articles were posted. Statements of charter for a newsgroup, commonly asked questions, and rules usually need to be updated regularly anyway. It's not hard to set a medium term expiration date and repost an updated version at a regular interval. Of course, we have to be sure that these regular postings don't significantly increase the amount of traffic on the net. Mark Horton