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From: spaf@uther.cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.misc
Subject: Changes to "checkgroups" postings
Message-ID: <2660@arthur.cs.purdue.edu>
Date: 15 Dec 87 19:00:08 GMT
Sender: news@cs.purdue.EDU
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For some months now I have been posting a "checkgroups" control message
every two weeks to help sites keep their files up-to-date.  I will not
be posting the checkgroups message in that form again (at least for the
near future).

When the "inet" groups were created, they were given names that fit
into the regular 7-category newsgroup structure of the Usenet.  The
arguments for this were that it would be easier to understand the
placement of these groups, and that it would be easier to migrate
individual "inet" groups into the mainstream Usenet if the conditions
were right.  Although there is nothing wrong with these goals, the
software is not designed to handle the situation well.  Considerable
"leakage" has occurred so that some sites get partial or full "inet"
feeds without expecting them.  My regular "checkgroups" posting does
not include the "inet" groups, so system admins throughout the network
get mail every week telling them that dozens of "inet" groups are
invalid and should be removed -- so the message is not heeded.

Rather than continue to post something that annoys so many users and is
often ignored, I will post the "checkgroups" information as a shell
file that each system administrator can tailor to local specifications
and then run with a local distribution.  I will post this script to
news.admin every two weeks until such time as the software gets a
little smarter or the "inet" groups all become full Usenet groups.
This is exactly how I was posting it a year ago, before the advent of
2.11 news, so most news admins should be familiar with the process.

If you have suggestions on how to do this more effectively or
comprehensively, please send me mail.
-- 
Gene Spafford
Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-2004
Internet:  spaf@cs.purdue.edu	uucp:	...!{decwrl,gatech,ucbvax}!purdue!spaf