From: Henry Spencer (henry@spsystems.net)
Date: Mon Sep 20 1999 - 16:44:44 CDT
On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Brad Templeton wrote:
> ... While the ME line is available it is not that well used. Indeed,
> it was first C News and then INN which ruined the distribution line by
> allowing lazy admins to code feed distributions as "all,!this,!that" which
> assures that one leak anywhere propagates to the whole net.
I would phrase this a little differently. We didn't ruin Distribution;
what we did was to accelerate a trend that was already present. The basic
problems with Distribution were vague specification and a lack of prompt
user feedback on errors. This was already in the process of ruining the
header's utility. What we did was to recognize that, and make it possible
for admins to do what they already wanted to do, i.e. ignore the header
except in special cases. This removed whatever slight feedback remained,
in the form of limited propagation... which was not enough to stop the
growing misuse of Distribution, but may have been slowing it slightly.
The organization and discipline needed to make Distribution really work
on a sustained basis simply was never present on Usenet at large.
Henry Spencer
henry@spsystems.net
(henry@zoo.toronto.edu)