On Mon, 15 Nov 1993 16:18:00 EDT John F. Chandler said: >Marty Hoag, who (re)opened this discussion, is the person who would have >edited the log if that had actually been done. He implies that he didn't >do it. Who else could have? The list owners are on remote systems and >unlikely to tamper with nitty-gritty stuff. Huh? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your definition of 'remote' systems... At the same time, I would assert that plenty of list owners (remote or not) know how to retrieve a logfile, edit out messages that should never have been posted, and PUT the revised version of the file. As Eric noted, such a change (or deletion of an entire file) affects item numbering in the list's database. [The next day's 'Index' message will reflect the new numbering. (Actually, I can't swear to that - someone else would have to verify - it may depend upon retrieval attempts which cause listserv to rebuild the index - but on the one list I 'own' the problems with retrieval have never continued past the first day, after which the database and 'index messages' were back in sync.)] >> detect the separation between messages, it has to rely on the presence >> of a separator line followed by a valid header. If a user posts a >> message containing a separator line and another valid message header, > >This sounds bizarre. Not to me. If someone forwards a message from a newsgroup, for example, and posts a preliminary message plus sig file, then uses the 'recognized' separator, and it's followed by a 'valid' header, the logfiles treat the single message as two (or more) messages. Perhaps a better example would be logging mail messages into a new RiceMail 'notebook,' then including that file (in its entirety) in a new mail message with no further editing of the original messages. From what Eric said, as I understood it, the Index function would (correctly) treat the incoming message as a single (long) note. The database would see the separators, and assign separate index numbers to same. That's just how it works, and it's not a big deal, as I see it. [At the same time, it can be a pain to explain -- similar to the "> " v. ">" problem... which causes mail to bounce to my mailbox as listowner even though it's a simple 'reply' to another message posted to the list...] ;-) kt [one of those 'rare' types who's nothing more than a 'remote' list owner subscribed here because he wants to understand the technical questions related to 'owning' a Bitnet Listserv list... ]