>As the owner  of over 20 lists  and a heavy LISTSERV and  USENET user, I
>would vote for having no default Newsgroup= value. The list owner should
>be aware that their list is being gatewayed into USENET and so should be
>responsible for  putting in  the appropriate  Newsgroup= field  and also
>setting the Send=  Public field (this last field change  allows users to
>Post to the list from a USENET newsreader program).
 
Sorry Jim, but I  disagree. First, when I had to  change LSTSRV-L it took
me one week.  Because there are 8  peers, and because the  network is far
from being  as efficient as  snail-mail, in  a number of  "problem" cases
which, unfortunately, always hit you on  the back of the neck (because of
Murphy's law). Second,  as a list owner  what do I do if  someone asks me
for permission  to gateway his  list into  USENET? Frankly, I  don't know
what  it is,  but I  suspect  it's going  to  be dangerous,  so I'll  ask
someone, who  will say he doesn't  know, and then I'll  ask someone else,
and eventually LSTSRV-L or some other list,  and a lot of people will say
it's great, some others will warn me  that it can be dangerous and create
loops, after 2 weeks I still won't have made up my mind. And all that you
need is an end-user subscription to the list to make a USENET gateway, so
why should the list owner have to be involved, except in special cases?
 
  Eric