Corrections / Old KOTH posting

Hi,

If anyone is wondering where those random KOTH stats came from earlier
last year, they ended up not being properly moderated previously. I sent them
only for the people who watch the newsgroup/listproc to keep history.

I'm also responding to correct a bit of what Lukasz said previously.

> Yeah... Except it hosts this newsgroup. If it works wrong it affects
> this newsgroup much.

Usenet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet) has been around since
1979. I can't seem to find the r.g.c charter anywhere, but its been around
since ATLEAST 1991 (As far as google can find postings). KOTH (Previously
known at SKI ICWS) came onto the scene in early 1993. The FAQ for the
group changed the entry about "I do not have access to Usenet. How do I
post and receive news?" from other methods, to using the Listproc.
Since the Usenet group was started first, I consider that "The source".
What I provide is the ability for people (Around 50 right now) to be able
to have news be distributed to them via email, and when they email back,
I moderate and then allow it to the email people and then pass it back
into Usenet.

So KOTH/Listproc really doesn't "host" the newsgroup per se. Its
a different way to be able to read/reply to something that is already out
there. I'm not sure the number of people that read via Usenet (For those
that do and want to email me just for reference, I'd appreciate it), so
I can't say which is really where the most amount of participation occurs.
If TBOH and KOTH went away tomorrow, the newsgroup would still exist....
The participation just may fall off if people didn't have access to
it by other means.

>
> Actually you find it this way. For most of us KOTH reports are
> important informations.
>
It was my impression this was the case. We've never gotten a
"Hey, could you stop". We ARE the only hills that do it, so I'm not sure
if others consider it important enough or not. Again, I solicit ANY user
on ANY medium to email me privately to voice their concern.
>
> The most clear example of arrogancy I've seen: "My racing random
> generator works fine! Duplicates mean nothing!"
>
My statement was my Usenet news provider filters them. They
are currently 8th in the top 10 of sites pushing news around the world.
>
> Maybe it's good idea to change the way this newsgroup is hosted but I
> am not an expert in this field nor an admin.
>
See above...
>
> You're not an admin of this list program. Abusing it may be considered
> as attacking.
> If you are sick do you prefer to be cured by professional medicine
> doctor or to be an experimental rat for your neighbour self-educated
> witch-doctor?
>
I rarely do any testing. Unfortunately, due to a mistake on
the Usenet providers side when switching us over, we were getting some
weird issues for Listproc->Usenet messages. All our offline testing
worked perfectly, but online it failed. So I had to set up actual packet
dumps and monitoring files, etc to try to catch it live. We knew that
within 3 tests we would have the issue resolved. It took only 1.
It turned out that the provider didn't shut our feed off from their
other machine, so we were getting duplicates.

I felt that due to the immensely low noise to signal ratio of
my postings, this would be understood by the community.
>
> People on this newsgroup usually don't send spam. If you are afraid of
> web-robots you can change your address to be readable only for humans.
>
Spam, unfortunately, is a major issue. But your right, alot of
people do the "tucSPAM@t-b-o-h.net" type addresses with "Remove SPAM
in my email to contact me". Listproc people can't do that easily, and
if they need/want a way, please contact me privately.

> Oh, Skybuck, can you please stop swearing? I've seen no one swearing
> so much as you on this newsgroup. I do never swear and it hurts me
> personally.
>
As an aside, I feel there is absolutely no place for it either,
and I don't appreciate it either. When I'm out with friends, thats one
thing. But someone who new to this group (I'm going on my 15th year
being involved in all of this) doing it isn't appreciated.
>
> If I am banned maybe I should ask somebody to forward my message to
> Skybuck/newsgroup?
>
Your message will get out period. Neither I nor Skybuck control
the Usenet rec.games.corewar . Since you are a member of the listproc,
and the listproc is moderated, I theoretically could stop you from having
the message go out. In my entire life I've never once labeled a post
"DISCARD" that was really about r.g.c . The only ones I ever stop are
the spam that come via the Listproc. Moderating the Usenet->Listproc
flow is something I don't feel should be done, warts and all. No one
can forward to Skybuck via email since he does not give out his proper
email address. He seems to have made a change recently too to even begin
to blank out his name on posts that come through the Listproc. The
email address he uses can't be banned since it follows an RFC for bounced
emails, which systems are obligated to pass on despite there not being
anything there.

Hopefully this clears some stuff up. Feel free to ask for
clarification on anything.

Tuc