🚀 go-pugleaf

 Ah, welcome to the wild and wooly world of Usenet<->something
gateways.

tlimonce@drunivac.drew.edu writes:
[someone else complains about the cultural differences between
 Fidonet sites and mainstream Usenet people.]
| If you gateway groups that already exist, just gateway them.

 One of the problems with connecting Fidonet and Usenet is a social
one; Fidonet is a much more "interactive" and off-the-cuff place than
Usenet people are used to. Fidonet users are prone to use a public
message where Useneters would send email (often because users are
charged for email but not public messages).

 Usenet readers often dislike having what they percieve as a horde of
immature thoughtless people asking basic questions and chattering back
and forth dumped into their nice, calm newsgroups. Fidonet people are
undoubtedly annoyed at this bunch of stuck-up people who think that
just because they have bigger systems they're better. The problem is
compounded by the difficulties in getting email back and forth, and
the volume of new users.

 Ultimately, there is no solution except education; someone has to
change. Personally, I think it should be the Fidonet side; a good
first pass would be to insist that without lots of though, Fidonet
gateways create new conferences/echomail areas for Usenet groups and
not gateway them into existing conferences. That way Fidonet people
have a chance to realize that the cultures are differenct, and to
adopt.

| If you gateway it at multiple places just make sure
| the Message-ID isn't lost.  No body will complain. 

 The last time I looked, Fidonet didn't have the idea of message-id;
they prevent routing loops by very carefully controlling their network
topology. Anyone gatewaying a Fidonet echomail area into Usenet and
vice-versa should make VERY sure they're the only person doing this.

[talks about the problems of gatewaying a newsgroup into a mailing
 list and then gatewaying the mailing list into another newsgroup.]
| 1 -- Keeps the old Message-ID's:  Then the messages won't 
| appear in both comp.os.vms AND bit.listserv.info-vax because 
| the Newsgroups: line doesn't include crossposting info (i.e. 
| the first message to arrive [b.l.i or c.o.v] actually gets 
| posted... the other gets JUNK'ed).

 The problem with this is that if you have a downstream feed that
takes only comp.os.vms from you, they'll suddenly see maybe half the
volume that should "really" be there. In the long run, the solution is
to merge the mailing list and the newsgroup, and only have people on
the mailing list who can't get the newsgroup.

-- 
	"I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world."
			Number Ten Ox, "Bridge of Birds"
cks@white.toronto.edu		   ...!{utgpu,utzoo,watmath}!utcsri!white!cks