[Pan-users] Re: posting server according to the group one?

[Duncan]

David Shochat <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Mon, 25 May 2009 09:31:12
+0000:

> On Mon, 25 May 2009 07:37:40 +0000, Matej Cepl wrote:
> 
>> This feels very very weird ... I have just tried to make a followup to
>> message from news.grc.com and pan complained that it doesn't want to
>> post to that newsgroup via news.gmane.org. WTF?
>> 
>> Doesn't pan know where it get the newsgroup from? What's so complicated
>> to expect that the followup would go to the same news server?
>> 
> I also have found this very non-obvious, but what you have to do is to
> designate a "posting profile" to each group you want to post to. Right
> mouse on news.grc.com in the group list and select "Edit Selected
> Group's Preferences". That brings up a dialog where you can choose a
> posting profile from a pulldown. If there is no suitable posting profile
> on the list, you can add a new one using Edit->Edit Posting Profiles.
> When you set up the posting profile, you establish the server you want
> to use to post, and also what E-mail address, signature, and a few other
> items you want to use in those posts. I think the designer (Charles)
> would say that a given group /could have/ come from more than one
> server, so it wants you to specify which one to use.

This is correct, except that the idea of putting the server one chooses 
to post to in -- where else -- the posting profile where everything else 
about posting is set, was my idea, lacking anything better.

And lacking anything better, Charles took it.

It makes sense, /provided/ you look at the server you are choosing to 
post to as part of the same set of posting options as the handle or name 
and email address you use, your sig, and any custom headers associated 
with that profile, /and/ given that as David mentioned, normal USENET 
newsgroups are generally distributed and therefore likely to occur on 
more than one server, if you have multiple servers configured.

Special purpose or private servers such as gmane and grc just happen to 
be using the same NNTP protocol as normal USENET even if they aren't a 
part of it, and as such, it should be expected that they don't fit the 
general mold perfectly.  Being the only servers that carry those "groups" 
is one way they don't fit that mold.

Meanwhile, consider a user that has a "secret life" posting either 
"copyright challenged" or particularly kinky material to a paid provider 
that doesn't use the NNTP-posting-host or similar headers.  They could be 
quite embarrassed (if not get in legal or other trouble due to the 
connection made) if by some accident the same handle and signature used 
to post that content is used on their ISP's news server or some technical 
server such as grc.com or gmane.  

Thus, keeping the choice of server posted to together with the other 
settings of a particular posting profile makes sense and helps prevent 
accidental profile leaks.

Of course, that doesn't make it any less confusing when the default 
posting profile (I believe the first one setup) is inappropriate for a 
particular group, but at least the setting has some logic when considered 
part of the posting options, thus, to be set where all the posting 
options are set, in the posting profile, and selected along with it when 
another profile is selected.

Meanwhile, if you can come up with a better and/or more intuitive idea 
for setting the posting server, one that works well regardless of whether 
one or many servers handle a particular group, I'm sure both Charles and 
everyone here would love to hear (read) it.  Just because I came up with 
this one doesn't mean I'd not prefer something else if it can be shown to 
be more effective and more intuitive!  Unfortunately, nobody's come up 
with anything better yet, so lacking that, we're stuck with my idea, as 
viewpoint-conditional as the logic for it admittedly is.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman