Message-ID: <677ee963@news.ausics.net>
From: not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev)
Subject: Re: 1st RfD: Mass-deletion of moderated groups without a moderator
Newsgroups: news.groups
References: <vla2t6$5g57$1@dont-email.me> <vlm93g$2s1vg$1@dont-email.me> <20250108210042.3565dbdf@ryz.dorfdsl.de> <ydldvlggws.fsf@UBEblock.psr.com>
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Date: 9 Jan 2025 07:08:51 +1000
Organization: Ausics - https://newsgroups.ausics.net
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Winston <wbe@ubeblock.psr.com.invalid> wrote:
> Big-8 Management Board wrote:
>>> >                REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
>>> > 
>>> > This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) to remove the
>>> > following 101 moderated newsgroups.  
> 
> On 08.01.2025 10:28 Uhr Steve Bonine responded:
>>> When these groups are removed, the history associated with the
>>> contents of the group will disappear.  I do not know how much this
>>> matters. There are cases where someone doing research could use the
>>> information, but it is rare.  But when it's gone, it's gone.
>>
> Marco Moock <mm+usenet-es@dorfdsl.de> replied:
>> Those groups were mostly unused more than 10 years, most servers won't
>> carry any articles anymore.
> 
> I think the concern is a bit different: there are some hosts that try to
> archive the entire history of their chosen set of newsgroups (e.g.,
> non-binary groups) and that have articles from, say, 21 years ago or
> more.  If removing a newsgroup makes that history unavailable, that's a
> concern.  ISTM that deleting a newsgroup, and the archive host honoring
> that delete control message, would make articles in that group
> unavailable via NNTP, so the archiver would have to set up an alternate
> way of accessing the old articles, even assuming they were careful
> enough to preserve the articles when the group is deleted.

Yes. On Ausics, which doesn't expire articles, I've been
subscribing to some dead groups just to gradually read through the
old articles. Converting abandoned moderated groups to unmoderated
(with a post in each group explaining the change and risk of some
servers not implementing it) would be better in this regard.

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