Re: FAQ * r.g.l.faq * 10/14/2008



Stig Holmquist wrote:

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:34:54 -0400, Robert Perkis <robertp@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Please identify the Adminisrtator and how to contact him/her.

Stig Holmquist

You can send mail to domain.name@xxxxxxxxx, (that's the domain.name
of the service you subscribe to UseNet through) and it will (probably)
be sent to the appropriate contact(s) for that domain. You'll need to
register with abuse.net the first time you send mail through it.

Other information on posts vanishing . . .

I just made a posting to the Usenet news but it is not there!

This is a fairly common complaint, but most often it is
unfounded. You see, many newsreader programs no longer
show a posting once it has been read. Else you would see
the same posting over and over again, but it does not
mean that the posting has been deleted, i.e. expired.
You just have to force your way back to postings that
already have been read. How to do that depends on your
newsreader program. See your newsreader's help for more.
For example in Unix rn and trn the key to press to go
backwards to any posting is P.

When you have made a posting to the news, for some
reason it can become read under some newsreaders, even
if it shouldn't. Thus it might appear that your posting
did not make it even if it did. Force the newsreader to
go back / forward to read messages to see your posting
if your configuration has these kinds of problems.
Another dilemma is that depending on your local
arrangements the newsposting may take a (short)
while before your newsserver makes it accessible.

Many programs used for reading the Usenet news have a
killfile or a filtering option. Check that your program
is not set to filter out your own postings.

Some newsgroups are moderated newsgroups. If you post
to a moderated newsgroup, instead of making it appear
right away, your newsreader program will email your
posting to the newsgroups moderates who eventually
posts it to the newsgroup (or rejects it).

There is one pitfall with submitting a moderated posting.
if you cross-post to a moderated newsgroup and non-moderated
newsgroups, your posting will not appear in the non-moderated
newsgroup, but will be emailed to the moderator. Whether
he/she heeds to your cross-posting definition is up to him/her.
The blanket advice is not to use cross-posting at all when
submitting a posting to a moderated newsgroup.

Almost every day, someone asks, "Help! I just posted a
message and now it's gone! Who deleted it?" Actually,
it's almost certain that nobody deleted it, and that
you're seeing the normal operation of your
news-reading software.


Most newsreaders keep track of which articles you've
This is so you don't have to wade through the same
articles over and over and over again. Some newsreaders
"hide" just-read articles immediately; others wait until
the next time you "reload" or "re-enter" the newsgroup.


Your newsreader should have a command or button or
something which "shows all" or "shows previously-read"
or "unmarks" articles. This will make those articles
visible again, so you can re-read them.


All news servers *do* automatically "expire" (remove)
old articles after a certain period of time, which
varies from one server to another, and which can be
anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. This
"expiration period" can also vary from one group to
another on the same server. It is very unlikely that
the expiration period is as short as one day (except
possibly for "binaries" groups which take up a lot of
disk space).


Note: for beginner's information on newsgroups, check
out

http://cs1.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/




------------------------------------------------------
I went back a few days later to reread only to find my
postings gone. Is this normal?

Yes, it is quite normal. Your posting probably has already
expired and is thus no longer on your provider's server.
Note that the carrying time on different ISPs (Internet
Service Providers) varies even greatly. If you wish to
check back go e.g. to Google news repository.

Very seldom, but possibly someone has canceled your posting.
If your posting was spam (Unsolicited Commercial Email), or
a binary posting in a discussion newsgroup, that is quite
possible. If your posting was, however, bona fide, rogue
cancels are fairly rare, so then it is unlikely.
.