Re: R.I.P. Robert Jordan

"Default User" <defaultuserbr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:4ggef1F1nhdfqU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Michael S. Schiffer wrote:

"Default User" <defaultuserbr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in

It does still allow newsreaders to mark messages read in all
groups. It also allows "legitimate" cases of multiple
newsgroups to have all messages available, and cut down on
repeats.

In twenty years on Usenet, I'm not sure when the last time I
saw a thread where cross-group traffic was actually desirable.

I've seen plenty. There's usually a "best" group, but multiple
ones where the topic is acceptable.

The fact that the topic is acceptable in multiple groups doesn't
necessarily mean that cross-group traffic is beneficial. Different
groups have different cultures and conventions. I've discussed the
novel _Superman: Last Son of Krypton_ here and in
rec.arts.comics.dc.universe and it's on topic in both. But I
nonetheless wouldn't crosspost the same discussion between them, and
I wouldn't post exactly the same way in both. (On the broadest
level, there's just the expected level of shared knowledge: I
wouldn't casually refer to Nicoll Events in rac.dcu-- even though
James has been known to post there-- or refer to a story element as
"pre-Crisis" without explanation here.)

(And it
doesn't seem as if a newsreader mechanism for automatically
marking future identical posts as read would be all that
difficult to implement-- have it check against poster, subject
heading, date, and first line, say.)

Whether it's possible or not, none do that I know of. Do you
have contrary evidence?

We were discussing a counterfactual in which crossposting wasn't
made possible in the first place. I was suggesting that if that had
happened, then the positive advantage of crossposting you mention
(being able to mark a multiply-posted message as read across all the
groups in which it appears) could still be available. (In practice,
you could still do what I suggested with a killfile or scorefile,
but it would be more cumbersome and isn't, AFAIK, a default
behavior.)

It also aids in redirecting messages. Messages that are
posted to an inappropriate newsgroup can be redirected with a
cross to both the original and the correct group, with
follow-ups set to the new one.

Thus routing traffic from group A into group B, with frequent
concomitant disruption when newsgroup cultures clash.

It can be abused, but I normally see it used effectively.

Again, a good
idea in theory that doesn't tend to work terribly well in
practice.

That's not been my experience in general. Examples are POSIX
questions posted to comp.lang.c. There's a lot of confusion for
newbies about what constitutes an appropriate topic in clc. They
are surprised to find that fork() and socket() are not. Some
people will tell then where to go, others will use the procedure
above.

It may well be that the comp. groups are better in this regard. I
haven't spent much time in that part of Usenet. In rec., I don't
see that happening effectively.

(Especially since rerouting responses to your post doesn't mean
that respondents to the previous post will follow suit.)

True, but you've done what you can.

"What you can" generally isn't sufficient to redirect OT threads out
of groups, in my experience, so the ability to set followups isn't
much of a benefit. (And, of course, it also allows for mean tricks
like setting followups to alt.dev.null, or to wholly inappropriate
groups.) I've set followups myself when it's seemed appropriate,
but in practice, it's like bailing the ocean with a spoon.

Mike

--
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS
mschiffe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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