Re: mail / how to send a pre-composed multiple mail file?

$DRIFT ON

J de Boyne Pollard wrote:
> Either Batch SMTP or the UUCP "rmail" utility are your friends.

If you cross-post from another group - comp.unix.programmer in this
case - it would be nice if you at least quoted *something*. Now I had to
go 'chase' for the parent article to see what the heck this was about.

Also your Subject: line does not have the standard "Re: ", which adds
to the problem, because it makes your article look like an OP, while it
is a response, i.e. has a References: header.

Finally, Google Groups is breaking the Newsgroups: line by having an
invalid space after the comma. While nowadays many (most?) News servers
accept such broken articles, it limits propagation, so you might want to
complain to GG about their non-conformance.

$DRIFT OFF

Re: mail / how to send a pre-composed multiple mail file?

[Disclaimer: Response based on how normal newsreaders work. Not on how the
Google Groups web-interface ... ummmm ... 'works'.]

J de Boyne Pollard wrote:
> FS> If you cross-post from another group [...]
> FS> it would be nice if you at least quoted *something*.
>
> > references-header.html>

No, (in general) we don't (have to). *newsreaders* - the *programs* -
do.

> Moreover, quoting is wholly unnecessary when the question being
> answered is in the subject line.

I'm not talking about the *answer*, but about the (absent) *question*.
Please *read* and (try to) comprehend what you (silently) snip.

For anyone *other* than the OP, the question is needed to make sense of
the answer. In the cross-posted group, the OP is *not* available.

> FS> Also your Subject: line does not have the standard
> FS> "Re: ", which adds to the problem, because it
> FS> makes your article look like an OP, [...]
>
> False. It does not add to any problem, because there isn't actually a
> problem with the message to add to. The problem is that you don't
> know how to recognize the first post in a thread. You think that it's
> signified by the subject line. It is not. It is signified by a
> "References:" header. Your reading the wrong thing is a problem that
> you have made for yourself, not something caused by any actual message
> content. Subject lines have zero relevance to threading.

Don't pretend to know what I think and please don't try to lecture me
on Usenet/News stuff. I'm very well aware what is and what isn't
required for threading and how to recognize an OP. But *in this case*,
threading is irrelevant, because in the crossposted group the *OP
doesn't exist*, so your article *cannot* be threaded.

The *point* is that in all newsreaders the Subject: line is readily
visible, while the References: is not. So, *as I said*, your post
*looks* like an OP, but *is* a response.

[...]

> FS> Finally, Google Groups is breaking the Newsgroups:
> FS> line by having an invalid space after the comma.
>
> False. RFC 1036 is silent on the matter, having no formal syntax; and
> the formal syntax given in the USEFOR article format document, in
> section 3.1.4, allows folding whitespace on both sides of a comma.

RFC 1036 is not "silent on the matter". It specifically says "Multiple
newsgroups may be specified, separated by a comma.". USEFOR is not yet
a standard, hence irrelevant. FYI, *the* most common News server
software - INN - rejects such Newsgroups: lines.

Bottom line: The *point* of my response was not to make it difficult
for your audience and not to limit your audience.

Re: mail / how to send a pre-composed multiple mail file?

Frank Slootweg wrote:

> For anyone *other* than the OP, the question is needed to make sense of
>the answer. In the cross-posted group, the OP is *not* available.

Frank, you did better than I did. I didn't even work out that his
cryptic comment was supposed to be an answer to something, let alone
that it was a cross posted answer to a thread in a different group. I
thought he was just a kook making a random comment that he thought was
deep and meaningful.

Re: mail / how to send a pre-composed multiple mail file?

Frank Slootweg wrote:

> For anyone *other* than the OP, the question is needed to make sense of
>the answer. In the cross-posted group, the OP is *not* available.

Its not only when the originating post is in another group that it
gets confusing. If you use an offline reader and have deleted the
original post then a follow up without the Re: in the subject line is
still confusing.

Re: mail / how to send a pre-composed multiple mail file?

J de Boyne Pollard wrote:
> FS> If you cross-post from another group [...]
> FS> it would be nice if you at least quoted *something*.
>
> > references-header.html>

While we are having these (irrelevant) references (pun intended) to
(non) standards:

I saw this interesting tid-bit brought up in another group
(:



Message-ID:
References:



These MIDs violate the (RFC 2822) SHOULD (Line Length) limit of 78
characters.

And *which* organization was it again that generates these (silly)
MIDs?

How about *them* apples!? :-)