Re: Call for Usefor to recharter

["Charles Lindsey" <chl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In <01KQXJ08MY2E00AE20@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> ned+ietf-822@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:

>I have to say I find the recent claim that "in the reverse direction
>News->Email, such general-purpose gateways just Do Not Exist" to be pretty
>amazing, if for no other reason that I have years of direct personal experience
>with such gateways. For example, as many of you know, I used to be a frequent
>contributor to the info-pmdf mailing list, and that list was for several years
>gatewayed bidirectionally between netnews and email. (This particular gateway
>was discontinued in the news->email direction at some point, but other gateways
>of this sort continue to operate.)

Then please read my lips.

The important words in my claim were "such GENERAL-PURPOSE gateways".

The gateway into the info-pmdf mailing list that you mentioned was not a
"GENERAL-PURPOSE gateway". It was a special-purpose gateway for the
benefit of one newsgroup and one small group of users (and see my
respponse to Dave Crocker for the effect on such gateways).

A GENERAL-PURPOSE gateway would be one which was capable of handling and
Usenet newsgroup that was thrown at it. I repeat that such gateways do not
exist in practice (though they do exist in the mail->news direction, where
the problems are easier).

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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