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Re: No postnews or other Usenet news utilities?


Lucky for you, my own attempt to reply seems to have gone to /dev/null. Guess I'll re-hash it below as it is still relevant.

I am TITTTLing this, and CC'ing you to ensure that you notice I have done so (and hopefully, so will the rest of this list, but if they don't, then shame on /them/ ;-)).

Bruce Wehr wrote:
the group has existed for a long time before you came around and has pre-existing standards, customs and rules that define what is or is not "appropriate".

Oh, so now you presume to know how long I've been around, eh? Pretty clairvoyant of you, no?

Since you brought the subject up, let me tell you how long I've been around
Usenet.  (I usually avoid speeches like this; they sound so trite.  But, hey
... You started it. :)

I was introduced to Usenet on or about 1985.  I had been a regular
participant, a respected member of the community for many years.  I invite
you to visit Google Groups and search for me: "Bruce Wehr."  See how many
posts come up.  Read a few.  See if I haven't always respected the Rules of
Netiquette.  Go ahead ... Find fault with any of my posts.  See how many
times I've been flamed.  (Congratulations: you are a now a member of an
elite, exclusive and (thankfully) sparsely populated group: the group of
those who have flamed me.)

Ok, I accept your challenge. This post, and the previous one, are at fault. I don't know what reputation you have on USENET, and I don't have time to kill "finding out", but you've already grossly violated netiquette for *this* list not once, but twice.


First off, go read <http://cygwin.com/lists.html> (which you should have read before posting *anything*), and <http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#TITTL> which describes what you should have done with this latest post. Second, read <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>.

To summarize: we didn't need three pages of hysterics and back-story to come with your question. Let me re-write your original question in six lines (note this includes almost 100% of the /relevant/ information from your original post):

===
I need to post a message to a large number of newsgroups. I was hoping to find an nntp client for Cygwin that allows scripted posting (maybe 'postnews'), but after looking at what packages setup would let me install, all I found was 'tin', and I couldn't find a way to script that. Am I not finding the program I want or is there no such thing? If not, are there any plans to add any USENET utilities?
===


There, see? That was *much* easier and more pleasant to read, was not hysterical, and summarized both your problem (which, incidentally, has nothing at all to do with Cygwin) and the current solution path you are exploring (i.e. looking for a scriptable Cygwin program).

Excuse me while I put on my Gieco Cave Man suit and say, "Perhaps you should
do a little research next time."  It has been said, "It is better to keep
your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all
doubt."  Perhaps that's a lesson you should take to heart.

I agree with both comments. Please follow them next time.


[snip] As for groups that are dedicated to a local
area:  are there particular areas where people interested in Pokemon cards
live?  If so, please enlighten me; I promise to limit my ads to those areas.
Last time I looked, I could find Pokemon collectors in every city, in every
state, in every country (yes, my auction is open worldwide), on every
college campus ...  How would you suggest I make my decision?

IANAUU (I am not a USENET user), but I would think the purpose of regional groups is to post about items that *are* specific to a region. If your item is *not* specific to a region, then IMO you should restrict yourself to posting in non-regional forums.


IMO cross-posting to more than a few groups constitutes "spam". It may be well-targeted and relevant (if there was no such thing, spammers wouldn't bother), but that doesn't make it "not spam". OTOH, I'll concede that *.forsale sounds like a bunch of groups whose purpose of existence is to be the target of directed spam.

Either that, or you have been cancelled by the usenet anti-spam bots for your spamming. Carry on and it will be your ISP disconnecting you next.

Wow. And, will monkeys start coming out my butt? (Sorry to everyone else out there. I usually don't talk like this, but I'm really starting to lose my patience with this asshole.)

Even if I agreed with you that you *may* have a legitimate reason to excessively cross-post, it's generally considered bad form and I wouldn't be surprised if you *did* get banned for it. That's not meant as a 'I think that's bad, don't do it', but a 'other people IMO probably won't like that; proceed at your own risk' warning.


As for your impression of Dave Korn, you might want to re-read your OP, read <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html> and then ask yourself (especially considering that many people consider such excessive cross-posting to be spam) if you're still surprised by Dave's response.

--
Matthew
Doom doom dooM doo-DooM dOOm DOom doOM... DOOM! -- Gir


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