ietf-nntp <distributions> parameter to NEWGROUPS and NEWNEWS

[Russ Allbery]

Charles Lindsey <chl at clw.cs.man.ac.uk> writes:

> On USEFOR, we have tried to clean up DISTRIBUTIONS. Specifically, USEFOR
> requires them to be checked on arrival, as well as on dispatch,

Yes, I know; I disagree with this stance and tried to express that on
USEFOR.  I'll try again when we get back to that section of the document.
I think cleaning up distributions is a lost cause.  It runs contrary to
the way that most large news sites want to run their server, namely to
carry every article they can get their hands and provide service to people
in any region of the world.

> so a working feature in NEWNEWS would be in line with that aim (whether
> the world will move in that direction is another matter, of course).

Yup.

> There I disagree. It's ugly, but its there. No benefit in changing it.
> Either it goes entirely, or leave it as it is.

Bleh.  Okay, you have a point.

If we end up keeping it, I'll modify INN to accept a comma-separated list
of distributions with or without angle brackets and hopefully other people
who support this feature (if we try to support it at all) will do the
same, and then we can change it on the next time through.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>