From:	MERC::"uunet!VM1.NoDak.EDU!ANU-NEWS"  7-OCT-1992 11:01:17.70
To:	Multiple recipients of list ANU-NEWS <ANU-NEWS@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
CC:	
Subj:	Re: Confused by distributions...

In article <1992Oct7.065550.4628@dmc.com>, munroe@dmc.com (Dick Munroe) writes:
> All of a sudden, a lot of messages are showing up in JUNK and I don't
> have a CLUE as to why.  The only thing I've done is reformatted my
> news.sys file (and I've looked at this until my eyes have crossed).

You don't have any entries for distributions in you sys file.  The
sample rejected article has Distribution: usa in it, and usa is not a
distribution that you accept. You can do one of two things:

thehulk/dmc.com:\
alt,bionet,biz,can,comp,control,dmc,general,gnu,jobs,junk,k12,local,mail,\
misc,mtl,ne,news,rec,sci,soc,talk,to,vmsnet:::world,na,usa,local

or

thehulk/dmc.com:\
alt,bionet,biz,can,comp,control,dmc,general,gnu,jobs,junk,k12,local,mail,\
misc,mtl,ne,news,rec,sci,soc,talk,to,vmsnet,\
world,!world.*,na,!na.*,usa,!usa.*,local

The first will only accept articles with no Distribution: header or
distributions of world, na, usa, or local. You will need to negotiate
with your feed site what distributions you want to exchange. The local
distribuion should only appear in the entry for your system, not your
feed. The problem is that about 5-10% of the articles posted have
distributions that match newsgroups rather than actual distributions,
for example, Distribution: comp.  The second form will accept those
articles. I personally use the second form.

> I was under the impression from the News documentation (clearly
> incorrectly) that in absence of a distribution field in the news.sys
> file OR an entry in the news.sysd file, News assumed that distributions
> don't matter.

I would like to know where you found such a statement in the ANU News
documentation, since it it TOTALLY wrong.  Distributions ALWAYS matter
to NEWS.

> And if not, how do I guarantee that an item will ALWAYS get delivered
> independent of distribution setting (like to my newsfeed site).  I'm
> using version 6.1a4 (or whatever version was released with DECUS UUCP
> 2.0.

You probably don't want to do that, since it totally defeats the
purpose of distributions. For example, if I post something to the ks
distribution, it should only be sent to sites that are in Kansas.
Decide what distributions you want to see, list them in your NEWS.SYS
file and have your feed site only send you the distributions you want.
If you absolutly insist on ignoring usenet conventions and
contributing to the distribution leaking problems you can do:

thehulk/dmc.com:\
alt,bionet,biz,can,comp,control,dmc,general,gnu,jobs,junk,k12,local,mail,\
misc,mtl,ne,news,rec,sci,soc,talk,to,vmsnet:::all

but it is a REALLY bad idea.
--
USmail: Bob Sloane, University of Kansas Computer Center, Lawrence, KS, 66045
E-mail: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu, sloane@ukanvax.bitnet, AT&T: (913)864-0444