Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!nsc!chuqui From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: Suggestion: article number 0 Message-ID: <2898@nsc.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Jun-85 00:21:35 EDT Article-I.D.: nsc.2898 Posted: Mon Jun 24 00:21:35 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Jun-85 02:55:47 EDT References: <905@sdcsla.UUCP> Reply-To: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Organization: Plaidhenge Lines: 56 In article <905@sdcsla.UUCP> west@sdcsla.UUCP (Larry West) writes: >How about having an article number zero (or one) in each newsgroup, >which always exists, and serves as an introduction to that group? >It could include a description, name of moderator, etc. Actually, this already exists for some groups, because when they were created the creator sent out a note with an Expires: line in it well into the future. We could probably collect a set of charters for distribution with future news releases and write a shell script to install them without much problem. The hooks, for once, are already in there! >And "rn" >and whatever else people use to read news would have to know to >always show that message when someone read the group for the first >time (this might not take any change), or when it changed (this probably >would take a change). All you would really need to do is send out cancel messages on the old one and send out a new one with a long expiration date to make the switch. Shouldn't require a lot of hassle to the code, thank GLOS. >Comments? Particularly from those overworked people who actually >implement the net? There are a few caveats I ought to mention before we all go out and celebrate: o Notes is an unknown. It may not acknowledge Expires: lines, and get rid of the article anyway. Since notes are a significant subset of the net, this wouldn't help a significant subset of the net. o Old news (A news, for instance) doesn't understand the Expires: line, either. See above note. o If you set the -i or -I flag of expire, the Expires: line is ignored and the article goes bye-bye. This is used by some sites on a regular basis, by others when disk space is really tight. The charters go away when this happens. o Some systems use find to get rid of old articles, because the expire program used to be REAL flakey. 'find -ctime +30' does an even better job than 'expire -I' because you don't even need them to be in history file to get them. Overall, though, sounds like it might be a good idea. It can be implemented in place, so we don't need people to upgrade software for it to work, and it'll probably work for some period of time on most sites. Perhaps we want to post them on a regular basis, say every six months or so... -- :From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach {cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA The offices were very nice, and the clients were only raping the land, and then, of course, there was the money...