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

[Duncan]

Beartooth <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Mon, 25 May 2009
19:41:45 +0000:

> I have accounts at motzarella (free) and at giganews (charges money).
> When I post to a group that both carry, isn't it precisely my choice of
> server that determines whether i get charged for it??

You have the right idea, but most servers, even paid servers, don't 
charge for posting/uploading, only downloading.  That's for two reasons.  
First, if you posted it elsewhere, they'd have to download it from 
another server anyway, so they don't save anything.

Second, there's some advertising value in having the big posters choosing 
your server (aka network).  It tells downloaders that's where the 
action's at and that they might want to get an account there too, AND, 
due to the vagaries of USENET propagation, it means posts are likely to 
be most complete on that server.  So there's double-reason for 
downloaders to want to have an account with the same server.

Together, these two factors have traditionally meant that even paid 
servers don't charge for uploading/posting, and it has become a 
competitive thing now too -- the competition doesn't charge for posting 
so any server that does is effectively asking big posters to move 
elsewhere.  I've not specifically looked at giganews recently, but I'd be 
very surprised if it charges for uploads.

However, there's another reason you may wish to post to a specific 
server, probably giganews not motzarella.  Paid servers normally hide 
posting data (nntp posting host, etc) that the free servers put in the 
headers for all to see.  Anyone trying to see where you posted from 
should simply see giganews when you're posting thru them, and would need 
to contact giganews with a court order to trace it back to the account 
user.  But the free servers normally put that all out in the open, so 
anyone that wants to can trace the post back to your IP address, then try 
to crack or otherwise attack it if they don't like what you posted, or 
something.  I've not verified motarella falls in this category, but as a 
free server, I'd be surprised if it didn't, since it's easier for them 
legally and for spam tracking purposes to just put the info out there.  A 
paid provider has incentive to do the extra work to hide that info and 
take on the extra legal hassle of doing so since you're paying them, 
while a free provider normally doesn't.  (FWIW, ISP bundled news normally 
falls in the "free provider" category here -- they're getting paid for 
your net access, not specifically for news, so they have no incentive to 
hide your posting details either.)

-- 
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