As per the suggestions of some, here is the closest thing to an RFD
(request for discussion) on setting up a gateway to Netnews. With a
gateway, there is no formal RFD. There are 5 steps to take which are
described here. The first step has been taken, no objections from me or the
Listserv administrator. We are now involved in steps 2, 3, and 4. Actually,
step 3 does not apply since there is no museum related discussion group on
Netnews (at least none that I am aware of). The proposed name of the group
is bit.listserv.museum-l.
For all concerned, if you do not have access to Netnews, you will continue
to receive e-mail postings. Some people associated with Universities prefer
to read Netnews rather than e-mail postings. With a gateway, postings to
the newsgroup will go to the e-mail group.
The reason I have started this process is to provide a service for some of
our subscribers. There will be no loss of service or discussion, and I hope
we gain some new participants who will contribute to the discussions we
have on the list.
--john chadwick
[log in to unmask]
>--------------8<---------------(cut here)---------------8<---------------
>Archive-name: bit/policy
>Last-modified: 1 July 1994
>
> ************************************************************
> *** General Information on Mailing List/Netnews gateways ***
> ************************************************************
>
>This document gives general information on gateways between Electronic
>Mailing Lists and Netnews as implemented in Netnews version 2.5 by Linda
>Littleton at Penn State University. It includes guidelines on how to
>establish a new Mailing List/Netnews gateway.
>
>*** What are Electronic Mailing Lists?
>
>Electronic Mailing Lists are controlled by a software package called a
>Mailing List Mananger (or MLM). Since the most widely used MLM is called
>ListServ many people refer to electronic mailing lists as "Listserv
>lists". (Listserv, which stands for List Server, is a MLM that runs on
>VM/CMS, AIX, VMS, and other platforms. It is a product of LSoft, Inc.
>Write to [log in to unmask] for more information on Listserv.)
>
>MLMs provide "mail-exploding" capabilities so that people with a common
>interest can communicate with each other by sending mail to a particular
>address (one address per mailing list), which then redistributes the mail
>to each person "subscribed" to the list. Each person subscribed to a
>particular list gets a copy of each piece of mail in their mailbox.
>
>*** What is Netnews?
>
>Netnews is a bulletin board system in which articles on a variety of
>topics are arranged in "newsgroups" and stored in a shared location from
>which individual users can read them. These newsgroups can be local
>newsgroups, available only at a user's site, or may be shared with other
>sites to form a world-wide bulletin board system called Usenet.
>
>*** What does the gateway do?
>
>The gateway software (which is a built-in part of the VM/CMS Netnews
>server from Penn State) puts each piece of mail for a particular list
>into a corresponding Netnews newsgroup and also sends each Netnews-
>originating posting to the newsgroup back to the mailing list. Generally
>gatewayed groups on Netnews are given the name bit.listserv.<listname>.
>When appropriate, the items in a mailing list might also be cross-posted
>to a "mainstream" Usenet group.
>
>*** Moderated or Unmoderated Newsgroup
>
>The newsgroup gatewayed to a list can be either moderated or unmoderated.
>If it is unmoderated, all posts are immediately accepted in the newsgroup
>and make their way eventually to the mailing list. If the newsgroup is
>moderated the posts are not accepted in the newsgroup, but instead sent
>through e-mail to a moderator address. This moderator can be a human
>being who decides if the post is appropriate, or can even be the mailing
>list address (where, for example, the list owner may from time to time
>set the list to "Send= Private" to limit the mail coming from Usenet to
>the mailing list).
>
>Whether the mailing list is edited is a separate decision from whether
>the newsgroup is moderated. Many unedited mailing lists are gatewayed to
>moderated newsgroups so the list owner can impose controls when and if
>inappropriate posts come from the newgroup to the mailing list.
>
>*** Why have a gateway?
>
>The major reason sites decide to carry gatewayed mailing lists is so
>their users can read these lists via shared disks, rather than requiring
>each user to receive each item to their mailbox. In addition, the gateway
>gives greater exposure and wider readership to the list since the list
>can be now be read by users at thousands of Usenet sites.
>
>*** The gateway can be LOCAL or GLOBAL
>
>On a per-group basis, the gateway can be either LOCAL (only users on the
>machine where Netnews is running will see the Listserv items) or GLOBAL
>(the Listserv items will propagate to other Usenet sites). To avoid
>problems that can be caused by multiple sites gatewaying the same group,
>we request that only a handful of sites set up global gateways and that
>other sites receive these groups through their normal news feeds.
>
> *******************************
> *** AN IMPORTANT PRECAUTION ***
> *******************************
>
>It is important that no more than one site per list set up a GLOBAL
>gateway. If more than one site does a GLOBAL gateway for a particular
>list, the list may get duplicates of some articles. It is the list
>owner's responsibility to make sure there are not multiple global
>gateways for the list and to "signoff" any suspect gateway site should
>problems start to occur. No GLOBAL gateway should ever be established
>without the express permission of the list owner.
>
>In the event that two sites did set up a global gateway for the same
>list, here is what might happen. If a user anywhere on the net posted an
>article to the group via Netnews and the article found its way to both of
>the global gateway sites, both of these sites would forward the article
>back to the mailing list. The mailing list would therefore receive two
>copies and although Listserv will usually detect the duplicate posting,
>it will return one of the copies to the author with a message saying that
>the post was a duplicate. Since the author only posted once, this will
>cause them some confusion. Also, it is possible that both posts would be
>distributed to the list if a MLM other than Listserv is controlling the
>mailing list. Netnews would not have a problem handling this (since it
>checks message-id's for duplicates), but it is the people who get the
>items in their mailboxes who would see two copies of the article.
>
>*** Gateway registration
>
>In order to avoid problems caused by multiple gateways, a list of
>gatewayed newsgroups is maintained by David Lawrence ([log in to unmask]).
>This list is posted monthly to bit.admin, and copies are available from
>[log in to unmask] by sending the command GET NETGATE.GATELIST as the
>first and only line in the body of a piece of e-mail. This file is also
>available via anonymous ftp from ftp.american.edu.
>
>Please consult this list before establishing a gateway between a mailing
>list and a newsgroup to verify no gateway already exists. If you set up a
>gateway you should have it added to the list by writing to David Lawrence
>at [log in to unmask], or by writing to [log in to unmask]
>
>*** Setting up the gateway.
>
>The gateway is set up by having the Netnews service machine subscribe to
>the mailing list in the same way that a subscriber would. The MLM must
>ensure that each post has a unique Message-ID. If none is present in the
>incoming post, the MLM must add one. Also, the posts must come from some
>consistent address in the "Return-Path" (generally OWNER-<listname>).
>With LSoft's Listserv these requirements can be met by setting the
>FULLHDR option on (additionally the NOFILES option should be set, and
>NORENEW should be set if the list expires subscriptions).
>
>*** Guidelines for establishing a Mailing List/Netnews gateway.
>
>It is the responsibility of the person requesting the gateway to do the
>following:
>
>1. Get the approval of the mailing list owner(s) and the MLM
> administrator at the host node. (For Listserv, send a "REVIEW
> listname" command to the Listserv at the host node for the names
> and addresses of the list owner(s), and a "RELEASE" command to
> the same address for the Listserv administor's name and address.)
> Send them each a copy of this document. If the list owner or
> MLM administrator objects, the gateway is not done.
>
>2. Get the approval of the mailing list readers. This could be done
> somewhat informally by posting to the list and asking if there
> are objections. If the issue was controversial, a formal vote
> should be held according to the same guidelines as for creating a
> new Usenet group. If there was no major dissenting opinion a vote
> will not be needed.
>
>3. If there is a Usenet group where crossposting would be logical,
> get the approval of the people who read that group (in the same
> way as approval of the mailing list readers was gotten).
>
>4. Post to bit.admin to see if there are any objections. The subject
> of the posting should be "Gateway for <listname> under
> discussion". Explain briefly what the list is for. If you are
> proposing that the list be gated to something besides
> "bit.listserv.<listname>", this should be stated. Again, if there
> was no major dissenting opinion within seven days, a vote would
> not be needed; otherwise a vote would be held.
>
> Steps 2, 3, and 4 can all be done at the same time.
>
>5. Write to [log in to unmask] to say that all of the criteria
> have been met. Indicate the gateway site (if you wish some site
> besides auvm.american.edu to be the gateway), mailing list name,
> mailing list host node, list owner(s), and a short (45 character
> maximum) description of the list. News-admin will establish
> and/or register the gateway, and then post to bit.admin to say
> that the gateway is operational. The subject of the posting will
> be "Gateway for <listname> operational".
>
>If for some reason you cannot follow the steps outlined here (for
>example, if you do not get the bit groups, so cannot post to bit.admin),
>write to [log in to unmask] to explain the situation.
>
>*** Where to address questions
>
>Questions about Listserv/Netnews gateways can be posted to bit.admin or
>sent to [log in to unmask]
>
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