Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 Apollo 8/9/84; site apollo.uucp
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!wivax!apollo!rees
From: rees@apollo.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news.adm
Subject: Re: Interfacing netnews and mail softwar
Message-ID: <214a3d41.1de6@apollo.uucp>
Date: Tue, 21-Aug-84 09:43:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: apollo.214a3d41.1de6
Posted: Tue Aug 21 09:43:09 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Aug-84 03:42:19 EDT
References: <575@ucla-cs.UUCP> <50300002@convex.UUCP>
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, Mass.
Lines: 56


    [ notesfiles] ... Check it out -- you might find that you like it.

If you are a user, that may be true, but if you are the administrator
of a usenet site you may not be as pleased with it.

Notesfiles sites have been flooding the net for years with articles
that don't adhere to the usenet specs [1].  I'll take Rob's article
as an example.  Here is the header as I received it:

    Relay-Version: version B 2.10 Apollo 7/31/84; site apollo.uucp
    Posting-Version: Notesfiles; site convex.UUCP
    Path: apollo!wivax!decvax!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!bonnie!clyde!burl!ulysses!cbosgd!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!convex!kolstad
    From: kolstad@convex.UUCP
    Newsgroups: net.news.adm
    Subject: Re: Interfacing netnews and mail softwar
    Message-ID: <50300002@convex.UUCP>
    Date: Tue, 14-Aug-84 11:25:00 EDT
    Date-Received: Tue, 21-Aug-84 01:19:28 EDT
    References: <575@ucla-cs.UUCP>
    Lines: 31
    Nf-ID: #R:ucla-cs:-57500:convex:50300002:000:1565
    Nf-From: convex!kolstad    Aug 14 10:25:00 1984

    #R:ucla-cs:-57500:convex:50300002:000:1565
    convex!kolstad    Aug 14 10:25:00 1984

The "Posting-Version" line is wrong.  See [1].

Note the "Subject" line.  What, exactly, is "softwar"?  A new video game?
No, it's all that is left after a notesfile site truncates the subject
to 40 characters.  If my news system hadn't stripped it off, there would
also be a " - (nf)" appended to the subject line.

The first two lines of the article are garbage.  They belong in the header.
In fact, they do appear in the header too.  Why repeat them?

I see that at least the "References" line is right.  They are usually
wrong or completely missing in notesfiles articles.

Out of all these people who think notes is great, I know of only one
who has taken the time to make it conform to standards before unleashing
articles on the net.  If you want to run notes, you should ask him where
to get the latest version that conforms to standards.  He is:

    Tw Cook  -  HP Portable Computer Div, Corvallis OR  -  hp-pcd!tw

By the way, I think that Ray Essick has done a great job writing notesfiles.
My quibble is with all those people who say it's great but can't be bothered
making it conform.

References:

[1]  "Standard for Interchange of USENET Messages", Mark R. Horton

    - Jim Rees