🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec22.220929.21666@clarinet.com> brad@clarinet.com (Brad Templeton) writes:

>The question is deciding what's an error and what's a warning.  I think
>posting to an invalid newsgroup or an unpostable group is an error.  The
>user wants the chance to correct the error and repost.

It's a stickier issue than that, though: a user who posts to an
invalid newsgroup and, simultaneously, to a valid one has just
committed an error, but has not committed an error.  Very Zen.

>Posting an article causes changes which can be cancelled, but not entirely
>undone.  Thus just about any problem in posting should be an error causing
>an abort and a message to the user -- making sure the article text is available
>for reposting after correction.

This can be fairly inconvenient for groups which have a high
percentage of crosspostings.  Perhaps the posting interface could
identify the invalid groups and, if any are present, tell the user
"The following newsgroups may not be posted to locally: alt.foo.bar,
comp.blat.zip, etc.  Post to remaining groups (y/n)?"  This would
allow the user to abort if necessary, but would reduce the hassle for
the (fairly common) case in which the user *does* wish to post to the
valid groups.  Besides, it seems like an appropriate halfway measure
for an error which is not an error.

What do y'all think?

-- 
____ Tim Pierce                / 
\  / twpierce@unix.amherst.edu /               Rocks say goodbye.
 \/ (BITnet: TWPIERCE@AMHERST) /