From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Mar 21 08:40:41 1995 Return-Path: hackers-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id IAA24658 for hackers-outgoing; Tue, 21 Mar 1995 08:40:41 -0800 Received: from LOCALHOST (LOCALHOST [127.0.0.1]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with SMTP id IAA24652 for ; Tue, 21 Mar 1995 08:40:39 -0800 X-Authentication-Warning: freefall.cdrom.com: Host LOCALHOST didn't use HELO protocol To: hackers@freefall.cdrom.com Subject: I need a USENET consultant! :-) Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 08:40:39 -0800 Message-ID: <24651.795804039@freefall.cdrom.com> From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I have this problem. People expect me to do stuff on USENET, like reply to messages or moderate the comp.os.freebsd.announce newsgroup (!), and in the case of the newsgroup at least that's fine. I want to have some measure of control over the content, since the main reason I signed up for it was due to some historical disagreements over comp.os.386bsd.announce's restrictions vs FreeBSD's traditional stances on things in the past. The only problem with all of this is that for reasons of dire schedule constraints, I don't really have the TIME to learn how to muck with the fiddly little details of getting things like those `Supercedes' headers right, and whatnot. People on USENET expect a certain level of service, and it is fine for them to expect it, but I worry about my ability to deliver it. Some background is, perhaps, in order: I personally BAILED on USENET about 4 years ago ("A hive of wretched flamers and ruffians as bad as you'll ever find") and only "came back" about 18 months ago insofar as I was more or less dragged back by a need to sort of wave the flag and fly the colors in there occasionally. I didn't come back happily, and I'd really rather prefer to just drop USENET again almost entirely. It's just too much for me to deal with on top of everything else, and how would you rather I spent my time - reading mindless diatribes by USENAUTS who've only just learned which side of the keyboard is the top, or in hacking on/promoting FreeBSD? I'd certainly prefer the latter, myself, which is why I'm sending this plea. I need someone to interface between myself and USENET - culling out the occasionally _genuinely interesting_ articles and mailing them on (or posting them to -hackers when VERY interesting), and ALSO handling the messy details of passing the "approved" comp.os.freebsd.announce articles back into the maw of an nntpd someplace. It's been so many years since I've last done this that I don't even *remember* how to do it, and I'm not really all that interesting in learning now again. I really just want to be able to "rubber stamp" the article and send it on to someone else who actually KNOWS what they're doing and will adjust the headers appropriately (I know that frequently posted things get different handling and all of that - ack - don't want to know about it! :-). Anyway.. I'm not too proud to beg. Would someone who knows USENET so well that this poses no significant additional hardship anyway please please please please step forward and help me with this one? I think it's very useful that *some* degree of presence be maintained and I'd hate to think of dropping out so entirely that I completely lost touch with that area of the net! :-( If I could rely on someone to smooth the rougher edges out, it would really make it possible to still maintain an active presence there without sacrificing so much of my time (and probably at much better quality, to boot!). Thanks! Jordan