From: Simon Lyall (simon@darkmere.gen.nz)
Date: Thu Nov 20 1997 - 04:24:24 CST
Changes:
- removed author and authoring agent.
- changed poster definition.
- changed followup agent definition.
x.x Definitions.
An "article" is the unit of news, analogous to a MAIL
"message".
A "poster" is the person or software that composes and submits
a possibly-compliant article to an injecting agent. The poster
is analogous to MAIL's author(s).
A "posting agent" is software that assists posters to prepare
articles, including adding required headers, determining
whether the final article is compliant, passing it on to an
injecting agent for for final checking and injection into the
news stream if so, and informing the poster with an explanation
if not or if the injection agent rejects the article.
An "injecting agent" takes the finished article from the posting
agent (often via the NNTP "post" command ) performs some final
checks and passes it on to a relaying agent for general
distribution.
A "relaying agent" is software which receives allegedly
compliant articles from injecting agents and/or other
relaying agents, and possibly passes copies on to other
relaying agents and serving agents.
A "serving agent" takes an article from a relaying agent and
files it in a "news database" . It also provides an interface
for reading agents to access the news database.
A "reader" is the person or software reading news articles.
A "reading agent" is software which presents articles to a
reader.
A "newsgroup" is a single news forum, a logical bulletin
board, having a name and nominally intended for articles on
a specific topic. An article is "posted to" a single
newsgroup or several newsgroups. When an article is posted to
more than one newsgroup, it is said to be "crossposted";
note that this differs from posting the same text as part of
each of several articles, one per newsgroup. A "hierarchy"
is the set of all newsgroups whose names share a first
component.
A newsgroup may be "moderated", in which case submissions
are not posted directly, but mailed to a "moderator" for
consideration and possible posting. Moderators are typically
human but may be implemented partially or entirely in software.
A "followup" is an article containing a response to the
contents of an earlier article (the followup's "precursor").
A "followup agent" is a combination of reading agent, and
posting agent that aids in the preparation and posting of a
followup.
A "reply agent" is a combination of reading agent and mailer
that aids in the preparation and posting of an email response to
an article.
A "message ID" is a unique identifier for an article, usually
supplied by the posting agent which posted it. It distinguishes
the article from every other article ever posted anywhere.
Articles with the same message ID are treated as identical
copies of the same article even if they are not in fact
identical.
A "gateway" is software which receives news articles and
converts them to messages of some other kind (e.g. mail to a
mailing list), or vice-versa; in essence it is a translating
relaying agent that straddles boundaries between different
methods of message exchange. The most common type of gateway
connects newsgroup(s) to mailing list(s), either
unidirectionally or bidirectionally, but there are also
gateways between news networks using this Draft's news format
and those using other formats.
A "control message" is an article which is marked as
containing control information; a relaying or serving agent
receiving such an article will (subject to permissions etc.)
take actions beyond just filing and passing on the article.
An article's "reply address" is the address to which mailed
replies should be sent. This is the address specified in
the article's From header (see section 5.2), unless it also
has a Reply-To header (see section 6.3).
-- Simon Lyall. | Looking for Work | Mail: simon@darkmere.gen.nz "To stay awake all night adds a day to your life" - Stilgar | MT.