🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BOB.89Nov1104315@archer.MorningStar.Com> bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes:
>The reason that (most of) the gnu.* newsgroups were set up as they are
>(unmoderated) is because setting up a moderated newsgroup requires
>active cooperation by the sites on the Usenet that maintain the list
>of moderated-newsgroup posting-into-mail aliases.  These are the sites
>that you name in your ${LIBDIR}/mailpaths as a "backbone" site.  Since
>one mailing list/newsgroup (info-gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu/gnu.announce) is
>moderated, the GNU news heirarchy is already slightly freeloading on
>the good graces of the Usenet.

This is not true, Bob, though I'm not surprised that you didn't know.
The reason most people don't know about how to set up moderated groups
in alternate hierarchies is that the feature was added in patch 1 to
2.11 news, and no documentation patch was ever issued.  I know this
stuff because I had a very small part in producing 2.11 news (I did the
Eunice code, I'm somewhat embarrassed to say).  So here's what you do:

Let's suppose the gateway machine between gnu.* and the gnu mailing lists
is gnu-gateway.ohio-state.edu.  Now, let's say we want to make all the
gnu groups moderated except for gnu.misc.discuss.  Simple.  On the
gnu-gateway machine, have aliases gnu-emacs, gnu-gcc, etc for each group,
replacing "." by "-".  Then, on each machine participating in the
gnu-net, add the line

gnu	%s@gnu-gateway.ohio-state.edu

or

gnu	...!uunet!gnu-gateway.ohio-state.edu!%s

to the mailpaths file, BEFORE the "backbone" line.  Voila, it works.
All moderated groups whose names begin with gnu will be sent to gnu-gateway
and all others will be sent to the machine listed in "backbone".  The
file "mailpaths" is searched linearly until a pattern match is found,
and the corresponding mail address is used.  The %s is replaced by the
newsgroup name, with "." turned into "-".

The maintainance is centralized on gnu-gateway, where you can add and
delete moderated groups at will, and participating site administrators
need only add one line, one time, to their mailpaths.  This method also
has the side benefit of helping to make clear to people that the gnu-net
has separate administration.

So, you didn't need the backbone to add a gnu-announce alias, and Brian
didn't need the backbone to add alt-gourmand.  The software does the
job; let's use it.
If you leave your fate in the hands of the gods, don't be surprised if they have
a few grins at your expense.  -- Tom Robbins