Re: messages deleted

[misty@idirect.com (Sid Stulberg)]

Nathan Mates (nathan@visi.com) wrote:
: In article <Edina1996Sep30.161002.25705@island.idirect.com.compulink.com>,
: Sid Stulberg <misty@idirect.com> wrote:
: >I have been shocked to discover that my messages and replies have been
: >deleted from this newsgroup.

:    Tip: in usenet, there are 3 kinds of "deletions" of messages:

: 1) Normal article expiry. Given that Usenet is in the 200MB-1GB per
: day range, there's not enough space to keep around every newsgroup
: back to their creation unless you're someone with a LOT of disk space
: like www.dejanews.com. Thus, after a _LOCALLY_ specified (by the news
: admin; this can range from 12 hours to weeks) amount of time, articles
: are deleted off your local news server.

:    This happens to everyone's posts pretty much everywhere; it's a
: fact of usenet life. Talk to your news admin for details on what the
: expire time for comp.sys.apple2 is on your site. If you feel strongly
: about keeping around old articles, then go to www.dejanews.com and look
: them up, or invest in the disk space needed to keep around however many
: articles you want.

: 2) Voluntary cancels. Most newsreaders (well, those with a feature list
: containing more than 'GUI') let you voluntarily delete messages at will.

: 3) Involuntary cancels, done by someone else. This can happen if you
: post binary files to a newsgroup not for binary files. (Tip: binaries
: must appear in the name). This is generally accepted because
: newsgroups were formed to contain a certain set of messages, and if
: binaries are not included in that set, they are inappropriate.

:    There's also the rogue involuntary cancels, such as happened a bit
: over a week ago now. Drop by news.admin.net-abuse.misc for details on
: the hunt for these people; they will be dealt with when caught.

: ---

:    Given that you said your messages and your replies, I'd think
: you've been caught by #1. It's not censorship when _everyone's_ posts,
: _regardless of content_ are deleted from the local news server some
: constant period of time after posting. It happens to everyone, and
: since it's a fact of usenet life, it's nothing personal.

: >Please answer these questions immediately and to my complete satisfaction
: >or I will be moved to take this problem to the proper authorities.

:    Sure, but you shoulda talked to the news admins of your ISP first;
: they'll probably have given you the exact same rundown as I just did.
: If it's a case of #1, normal expiry, the technical term for your
: recourse is basically "Deal with it." Usenet's operated that way from
: the start, and it's not going to change anytime soon unless gigabyte
: drives cost pennies. [And when that happens, the average message
: will contain tons of video and audio, so they'll fill a gig each :]

: Nathan Mates

: --
: <*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
: # What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
: # Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
: # think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein

My messages disappeared in less than 24 hours after being posted over the
past weekend.

I'll repost and we'll see what happens.
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