Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!plaid!chuq
From: chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Wish List re: Crossposting
Message-ID: <52859@sun.uucp>
Date: 11 May 88 18:45:30 GMT
References: <3938@gryphon.CTS.COM> <439@bacchus.DEC.COM>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Organization: Fictional Reality
Lines: 44

>I think that if you took a poll of the rank and file of the network, you
>would find most people in support of a rule that talk.bizarre should not be
>allowed to crosspost to ANYTHING. In general crossposting is a bad idea.
>Crossposting from talk.bizarre is an especially bad idea.

Crossposting is not, in general, a Bad Thing. But unrestricted cross-posting
creates sloppy group lists and encourages abuses. Rather than throw the baby
out with the bathwater, though, let's try to make cross-posting better.

A couple of suggestions:

o restrict cross-posting across top-level domains. How often do you REALLY
	need to post to both misc.misc and comp.sys.misc? Almost invariably,
	cross-postings should stay in the same part of the name space, such
	as "rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.mag.otherrealms".

o Restrict cross-posting up the name-space. For instance, there's no good
	reason to post to both comp.sys.mac AND comp.sys.mac.programmer.
	If it belongs in one, there's no reason to post it to the other,
	since one is a specific subset of information to the other.

	How hard you define this restriction is up for discussion. Would
	rec.arts.books and rec.arts.sf-lovers be restricted? comp.sys.amiga
	and comp.sys.mac?

o Force a followup-to on cross postings. I've suggested this on and off for
	a few years. If you post a message with cross-postings, the 
	posting program (postnews and/or Pnews and/or whatever) should
	generate a Followup-To: line sending followups only to the first
	group in the Newsgroups: line. This allows you to send out a widely
	disbursed message to get a discussion going, but return the
	discussion to the primary newsgroup rather than spreading it hither
	and yon. It could be overridden by a knowledgable person who felt
	it necessary, but in theory someone who knows enough to change a 
	Followup-To: line wouldn't do it spuriously.

Comments?



Chuq Von Rospach			chuq@sun.COM		Delphi: CHUQ

	Robert A. Heinlein: 1907-1988. He will never truly die as long as we
                           read his words and speak his name. Rest in Peace.