I have noticed, by pure chance, that EARN versions of PEERS NAMES (ie the one
that Turgut distributes to EARN sites) is not, as I had always thought,
identical to the one used for BITNET, despite what Turgut had originally said:
>Date: Mon, 2 Oct 89 11:27:39 TUR
>Sender: Revised LISTSERV forum <LSTSRV-L@CEARN>
>From: Turgut Kalfaoglu <TURGUT@TREARN>
>
>>Turgut,
>>
>>Are you supposed to be sending a PEERS NAMES to all Listserv sites (both
>>EARN and non-EARN)? Our Listserv is receiving the updates from you...
>>and rejecting them, of course.
>
> My apologies to those sites on BITNET who have received a PEERS NAMES from
> me. Although nothing is wrong with that file, I am not supposed to
> distribute it to BITNET.
There are in fact 13 differences between the 2 files. Some of them are
unimportant and due to the fact that the file I distributed today is a bit
more "up to date" than Turgut's (new DUKEVM server for instance), and for some
unknown reason all the EARN release 1.6 servers as listed as being release
1.5o. But you can imagine my surprise when I found that UKACRL and ICNUCEVM
are listed as backbone sites in Turgut's file.
I have to note with extreme disappointment that this difference, which can
have a serious operational impact on the LISTSERV backbone, was introduced
without even INFORMING me (perhaps for fear that I would react? Very clever).
I will not comment on the reasons which led these sites or EARN Management or
whomever to ask Turgut to introduce this difference, at some unknown time in
the past, leaving on the backbone sites with tables 5 months old. I will
simply say that I cannot accept to keep cooperating with people who act in
this fashion, and that the responsibility for any problem resulting from this
change (or any similar change that EARN might make in the future) lays solely
with the EARN Association. I have just signed off from the LISTTECH list, and
this is where my participation in the LISTGATE project ends.
Finally, I would like to remind you that IRLEARN, whose staff asked me to be
restored to the backbone, is now a backbone server on both BITNET and EARN
files - no fuss, no muss. UKACRL and ICNUCEVM, which took devious steps to
sneak back into the EARN vision of the backbone, have done the best that they
could possibly do to make their restoration into the BITNET backbone a more
uncertain event.
And all this happened because someone, someday, decided that being on the
backbone was a Prestigious Privilege reserved to a Few Worthy. Sigh.
Eric
|