On Thu, 5 Aug 1993 20:17:55 -0400 Chris Lewis <[log in to unmask]>
said:
 
>That incident was indeed a finger problem  on my part, but it still begs
>the question of  whether a LISTSERV should ever bounce  a duplicate back
>at a USENET-origin posting. (...) But don't do this until Eric fixes the
>bounce-usenet postings problem.
 
Are we  speaking the  same language?  I thought we  had already  made the
point  that  LISTSERV can't  know  that  the  message came  from  usenet.
Therefore there is not going to be  a "fix" to this "problem". This being
said, I never cease to be amazed  at the intolerance of usenet people for
non-usenet behaviour  (often referred  to as  "fascist"). When  a mailing
list  manager decides  to gateway  his  list to  usenet, he  and all  the
subscribers know they will  have to put up with a  number of things which
are  normal in  the  usenet  world and  orthogonal  to  the mailing  list
philosophy, such as total lack of  control (yes, I know you can moderate,
but  in practice  people have  no time  for that).  They put  up, in  the
interest of  communication. Usenet people,  on the other hand,  seem very
thin-skinned and it doesn't take much  for them to start complaining that
there are  systems in  the world which  dare to be  different. I  have no
obligation  to modify  LISTSERV to  save you  from the  major trouble  of
having to invest 20 seconds a  month deleting one useless mail message. I
have already  pointed out that  I have no reliable  way to know  that the
message comes from  usenet, so I cannot  fix the problem. And  yet in all
your messages  you seem to  assume that, of  course, I *will*  modify the
behaviour of LISTSERV in the general  case just to avoid offending usenet
people - it's  just a matter of  pressure, maybe it will  take another 20
messages, maybe another 50, who knows.
 
This ridiculous discussion has been going  on for too long and people are
starting to sign off.  This will be my last message on  the topic. I will
not "fix"  your problem because  I cannot  identify usenet postings  in a
reliable way.  If in the  future it becomes  possible to identify  them I
will reconsider.  Until this  becomes possible you  are just  wasting the
time of the 500-1000 people reading this list. End of discussion.
 
  Eric