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.